A 29-year-old Missoula woman who was beaten up by a group of four women last weekend says she was also verbally assaulted with homophobic remarks.

Jess Keith first encountered her assailants inside a restroom at the Press Box Restaurant after the Montana Grizzly football game. One woman was vomiting in a toilet, and Keith offered to bring her some water.

"They looked me up and down," she said. "Then one of the girls called me a dyke and told me to use the men's room."

Keith left the bar and headed toward the Missoula Club downtown, where she planned to meet some friends. But as she was cutting through the parking lot of the Missoula Public Library on Main Street, the same women pulled into the lot and attacked her.

"It was clear they were out looking for me," Keith said. "I heard one of them say, 'There she is,' and then they piled out of the car and one of them punched me in the face."

The punch knocked Keith to the asphalt, where the women continued kicking her in the back. One of them stole Keith's wallet before they drove away.

Keith described her assailants as wearing Grizzly apparel, and said one of the women was wearing a temporary Griz tattoo. Three of the women had dark hair, while the fourth was blond, and two women were wearing pink Griz vests.

Keith was not seriously injured -- although a full week later her back still aches -- but she said the experience was frustrating and raised concerns about Montana's hate crime statute, which doesn't include anything about sexual orientation.

"They stereotyped me," she said. "Whatever society's stereotype of a gay woman is, yeah, I fit that stereotype. I have short hair and wear boyish clothes."

In the 2007 Montana legislative session, Sen. Carol Juneau, D-Browning, sponsored Senate Bill 454, which would have added gender, disability and sexual orientation to the current hate crime statute. Expanding Montana's hate crime statute would allow judges to dole out harsher sentences to those convicted of bias-based crimes, and might include ordering someone to participate in a restorative justice program, such as victim-offender mediation. However, the bill died in committee.

"It's sad and it's scary, but nothing will change unless people stand up and do something about it," Keith said.

When Keith told police about what happened, she said they told her than a 22-year-old man had been attacked earlier that same weekend, and his assailants had screamed anti-gay epithets during the beating.

In that incident, the man was attacked by four unknown men while crossing the University of Montana footbridge aroung 2:30 a.m. The victim was shoved to the ground and kicked repeatedly in the chest and back.

The victim, who was not seriously injured, described his attackers as being college-age with short hair and baggy clothes.

Anyone with information about either of the assaults should contact the Crimestoppers hotline at 721-4444. Tipsters can remain anonymous and might be eligible for a reward.