It's been quite a week for the gay community at UNC-Chapel Hill.

First, word trickled out that a gay student had been viciously attacked because of his sexual orientation.

Then, last night, the stunning news: Freshman Quinn Matney invented his story about being attacked in the middle of the night by a man who pressed a scalding piece of metal to his wrist.

Now, more questions than answers, said Jeff DeLuca, co-president of the university's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Straight Alliance, a student organization.

"It was certainly shocking, almost as shocking as hearing a hate crime could have happened on this campus," DeLuca said Wednesday, a day after hearing that the student he'd sought out and supported had made up the story. "People put a pretty emotional investment in this, trying to find out what happened. Though this didn't turn out to be be what we thought it was, the roller coaster ride was real. People are shocked and confused."

But DeLuca's student group is moving forward with a previously scheduled campus forum Thursday night - at 6:30 in Gardner Hall - where the issue will be discussed.

And DeLuca still wants to reach out to Matney.

"We have to keep supporting Quinn," DeLuca said. "Even if it's a different type of support we have to give him."