So how did Don Whittemore, a self-described straight, boring 61-year-old retiree, find himself at Ford Fest in a rainbow cape with an enraged man squeezing his throat?

“For years I sat back and figured voting was all I had to do,” Whittemore said in an interview Monday, three days after the ugly incident at the barbecue for Mayor Rob Ford in Scarborough’s Thomson Memorial Park.

Something clicked when Ford emerged from rehab and went straight into re-election campaign mode. Whittemore joined “shirtless horde” protests challenging Ford on his unwillingness to address drug use and deceit.

Then, moved as a youth by Black Like Me, the 1961 account of white American John Howard Griffin posing as black, so as to feel racist hatred first-hand, he decided to walk around Ford Fest with a pink umbrella, a large rainbow flag on his back, and a smaller flag in his pocket.

“I had read about rampant homophobia in Ford Nation and thought this was an opportunity to see what it’s like,” he said. “I wasn’t protesting — I was hoping I could come back and say that nothing happened.”

Not much did happen. He wandered for three hours, tweeting and having pleasant interactions with Ford Nation members and a handful of “Queeruption” members there to quietly protest Ford’s statements and council votes on gay issues.

Bored, Whittemore was heading back to his car when he saw a crowd around the protesters, yelling slurs including “Go home, f----t”, and grabbing and ripping their signs.

“I was horrified — absolutely horrified. The air was actually vibrating,” he said, adding he yelled back that the crowd was being homophobic and protesters had every right to be in a public park.

One man yelled to his face: “How dare you be here? Rob is great,” then hit Whittemore’s forehead with an open palm, knocking off his hat before quickly walking away, he said.

A shocked Whittemore was talking to reporters when the man rushed back and briefly squeezed his throat with one hand, an incident caught by a CTV news camera.

“My throat is still sore,” Whittemore said Monday. “If he can sleep at night, good for him. I haven’t, but good for him.”

He talked to a police officer but decided not to pursue charges, he says, for fear of payback attacks on the reputation of his family and friends. However, he said he would act as a witness if police decide to charge the man based on photo and video evidence.

Councillor Doug Ford initially apologized to Whittemore but then told the Star that Ford supporters told him the man was “screaming and shouting” and “looking for trouble” — something Whittemore flatly denies.

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On Saturday, Mayor Ford told CTV News he didn’t see the unruly crowd, “but it’s terrible that things like that happen. I apologize and we have to move on.”

As for Whittemore, he wrote a lengthy blog entry and said he might revisit the incident, but, “Maybe I just want to go back to 7:30 July 25 2014 and take a different route to my car.”

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