Assault Shocks Fargo-Moorhead LGBT Community

Thursday night, openly gay Minnesota State University-Moorhead student Paul Marquardt was attacked by a group of men after leaving the school library at around 11:30 pm leaving him unconscious. Police are investigating the incident.

Marquart said he was followed by a group of men who yelled anti-gay slurs at him at which point he turned up his MP3 player in an attempt to ignore the men. The men then threw him to the ground, knocking him unconscious, and kicking him repeatedly. Marquardt regained consciousness several minutes later, but remembered very little of the attack. He was treated for a concussion, a separated shoulder, a broken wrist, and possible spleen damage.

According to an email from the Ten Percent Society of MSUM and North Dakota State University, a LGBT group, Paul's doctor told him that if "Paul been smaller and less well built, the assault could have been fatal." Moorhead police are investigating the incident, and are looking at surveillance tapes from Thursday night in an attempt to identify the assailants. Marquardt did not recognize any of his attackers.

According to TPS, this is the first anti-gay assault in recent history. "As far as we know, this is the first recorded hate crime in the city of Moorhead."

Both Marquardt and TPS say that this incident shows a lack of security on the MSUM campus. "This incident shows that there is still a long way go as far as tolerance in our community. But it also shows that there is a lacking of security on MSUM’s campus. There is much that can be done to improve security on MSUM’s campus to help prevent this from happening again," said an email statement to TPS members.

Marquardt told WDAY 6 News that while the attack could be considered a hate crime, the fact that he was lying on the ground, unconscious for so long points to a need for increased security around campus. "Me being gay and it being a hate crime is also awful, but it could have happened to a girl or another guy or a couple. It could have happened to anyone," he said.

To raise awareness about the nature of the crime, as well as to spotlight the lack of security on campus, TPS is planning a march Thursday night after dark.

MSUM says those who wish to send their support for Marquardt can send them through Warren Wiese, Vice President of Student Affairs for MSUM, at wiese@mnstate.edu.

Image courtesy of WDAY 6 News.

Crossposted on Minnesota Monitor.