CHEYENNE - The Wyoming Legislature this week will take up discussion of two divisive issues: wolf management and a proposed ban on recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

The Senate last month voted 21-8 to endorse a bill that prohibits Wyoming from recognizing same-sex marriages. Wyoming law already specifies that marriages performed in the state must be between a man and a woman.

The marriage bill languished on the House side until last week, when Speaker Roy Cohee, R-Casper, assigned it to the Rules Committee, which he chairs. He said he intends to hold a committee hearing on it Thursday morning. If it passes, he said it will hit the House floor on Friday.

Cohee said he believes House members are split about evenly on the same-sex marriage issue. While he said he's heard some people question why the House would spend its time on the issue, he said he believes objectivity demands the bill get a hearing.

"I wanted a deliberative panel to look at it without any preconception," Cohee said, which is why he chose the Rules Committee. "I think it will get a good fair hearing on whatever it is that is in the bill."

Bob Spencer, a retired hospital chaplain in Cheyenne, is spokesman for Wyoming Equality, a group that works on gay, lesbian, transgendered and bisexual issues in the state.

Spencer said Friday the legislation brings up painful memories of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten to death apparently because of his sexuality.

"I think it paints a bad picture for the state of Wyoming," Spencer said. "That's on top of the history of gay people in Wyoming, speaking particularly of Matthew Shepard and all the events around that. We would hope that we can build a much more positive attitude toward gay, lesbian and bisexual people."

Spencer said the same-sex marriage bill already has attracted national attention for Wyoming; Human Rights Campaign, a national grou