CINCINNATI (AP) -- Students at two universities in southwest Ohio held rallies on their campuses to protest anti-gay hate crimes.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports about 80 people chanted and carried signs Thursday night at the University of Cincinnati in reaction to a March 24 physical assault in Oxford, Ohio, against two gay men holding hands.

The Middletown Journal reports a similar rally by about 80 people was held simultaneously about 40 miles northwest of Cincinnati on the Miami University campus in Oxford.

The men, one a UC student and the other a Miami student, told police they were beaten last month by four people they didn't know who yelled anti-gay slurs. No arrests have been made.

The rallies' organizers say they wanted to promote tolerance.