By MATT EPSTEIN
News Editor
 

On Wednesday, October 7th, Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped and fatally beaten. Police there have two suspects in custody, and are holding their girlfriends as accessories to murder.

Shepard died Monday morning at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colo. He was in a coma from the time that he was found tied to a fence outside of Laramie.

His alleged assailants, Aaron McKinney, 22 and Russell Henderson, 21, are charged with first degree murder. They could face the death penalty if convicted.

Police say that McKinney and Henderson lured Shepard out of a bar in Laramie telling him that they were gay. When the three men got into McKinney's pickup truck Shepard was robbed and beaten.

The beatings continued with the butt of a .357 magnum while Shepard apparently begged for his life. He was also burned, then left tied to a fencepost in a rural area, where he remained for 18 hours in near freezing conditions before being discovered by passing bicyclists.

According to police, McKinney and Russell returned to Laramie and started a fight with a pair of Hispanic men on a street corner. McKinney and Emiliano Morales 3rd both sustained head injuries in the altercation.

n Attack considered to be a hate crime

While police say that robbery was the primary motive in the attack, they acknowledged that Shepard's sexual orientation was also a factor.

Apparently, Shepard made a pass at one of his alleged assailants earlier in the evening. Friends of Shepard have suggested that the attack was in retaliation for this, which apparently embarrassed McKinney and Russell.

Their girlfriends, Chastity Pasley and Kiristen Price, apparently heard them make anti-gay remarks after the incident.

Wyoming is one of 10 states that currently has no legislation against hate crimes. Proposals have failed 3 times in the state legislature since 1994.

Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer has quickly asked the Legislature to reconsider anti-hate laws when it reconvenes in January.

President Clinton also took the occasion to suggest making hate- and bias-motivated crimes federal offenses.

The Federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act is currently pending before Congress.

Conservative organizations, especially ones with religious ties, have consistently opposed such laws, claiming that they would extend "special protection" to minorities.

n A bad week elsewhere

Other events this week were also setbacks for gay-rights groups.

The Supreme Court declined to hear a case from Cincinnati, where a lower court upheld a city charter provision that banned "special privileges" from being granted to homosexuals on the basis of their sexual orientation.

The decision was greeted with confusion in legal circles because it appears to run contrary to an earlier ruling that threw out a Colorado law along similar, though not identical, lines.

The Colorado law could have been interpreted as denying even basic civil rights to homosexuals, whereas the intent of the Cincinnati law was unclear.

Also, a few blocks from Matthew Shepard's hospital bed in Fort Collins, Colo., a homophobic float was presented by a fraternity in the Colorado State University Homecoming parade.

The float contained a scarecrow with the words "I'm gay" on its head, and "up my ass" on the back.

The image was symbolic of news accounts claiming that the cyclists who found Shepard initially mistook him for a scarecrow.

Members of Colorado State's Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity have apologized, saying that it was the work of one of their members, who has since resigned his membership.

Members of the school's Alpha Chi Omega sorority were also said to be responsible. One member was apparently expelled from the sorority for her part in the incident before the parade even began.

It is unclear why the other members of the two organizations allowed the float to continue in the parade.

Officials at Colorado State University are investigating the incident.

This article contains information from the Uwire and the New York Times.