HE GOT 2 BLACK EYES & 4 STICHES FOR WEARING FLUORESCENT CLOTHES & PINK SHOELACES!

A young gay man was left with two black eyes and multiple stitches after a beating at the West Village McDonald's that cops are investigating as a hate crime.

The confrontation started in the fast-food restaurant and spilled out onto Sixth Ave. early Sunday, where Damian Furtch, 26, says he was set upon.

Furtch posted pictures of his injuries on Facebook and blunt words about his ordeal.

"I thought I was safe in the city I loved but apparently wearing fluorescent colored clothing and pink shoelaces really bother some f-----g a--holes to blind side me and hit me," the victim wrote.

He angrily captioned the disturbing images, "Four Stitches, Thanks Bitches!"

Furtch declined comment after emerging from the 6th Precinct stationhouse on Tuesday with two detectives.

He and a friend had just left their jobs at the nearby Pink Tea Cup Restaurant and were inside the McDonald's (below) when the two attackers started to harass them.

As they went back out to the street, the fists and the anti-gay epithets started to fly, Furtch told his boss later that day.

"He said he was beat up" when he called in to say he couldn't come to work, said Lawrence Page, owner of the Pink Tea Cup. "He said he was in the hospital all day. Then I saw the pictures."

He described the 6-foot-4-inch athletic young man - an aspiring actor and model - as a "gentle giant" who had just moved to New York from California.

"I took a liking to the kid quick," he said Tuesday.

Of Furtch's attackers, he said, "I think they're cowards."

Cops are still searching for the thugs.

Furtch's friend was not beaten.



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