LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — On Oct. 12, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, died at a hospital in Colorado nearly a week after being beaten and lashed to a fence before being found by bicyclists. Shepard's death turned the college student into a powerful symbol of the quest for acceptance and equal rights .

The Associated Press is republishing a version of its report of Shepard's death to mark the 20th anniversary .

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A gay college student who was lured from a campus hangout, beaten and lashed to a split-rail fence died Monday, and the two young men arrested in the a...