Along with holding signs, picketers from the Westboro Baptist Church, or WBC, played and sang along to their own versions of songs such as Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” and Green Day’s “American Idiot.” The words were changed to criticize the LGBT community.

The counterprotestors held signs in support of the LGBT community and chanted phrases such as “I said what, what in the butt” and “let’s get queer” and the MSU Telecasters’ shirtless male Twister tournament and lemonade stand selling personalized “God hates blank” cups. Counterprotestors ended with the event MSU’s famous “go green, go white” chant.

MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said there were additional officers at the on-campus protests to prepare for the rally.

“The whole point is to keep everyone safe,” she said.

There also were about 20 representatives from the Michigan Peace Team to prevent any violent outbreaks from occurring and protect the counterprotestors’ freedom of speech. Mary Hanna, a member of the Michigan Peace Team and Laingsburg, Mich., resident, said the leader of the counterprotest called the group instead of the police.

WBC identifies itself as an “Old School,” or, “Primitive,” Baptist Church, according to its website. The group follows the Bible’s teachings and disapproves of all forms of sin, including adultery, fornication and sodomy. WBC expresses its views through daily demonstrations on sidewalks, during homosexual events and at military funerals. The group has held more than 47,000 demonstrations across the U.S. and internationally in Canada, Jordan and Iraq, according to its website.

The same morning WBC protestors rallied on MSU’s campus, they visited Eastern High School, 220 N. Pennsylvania Ave., in Lansing, from 7:15 to 7:45 a.m. After leaving MSU the group made its way to Central Michigan University.

Topeka, Kan., resident Fred Phelps Jr., a WBC member who has preached his anti-gay views in protests for more than 20 years, said he loves seeing students practice their First Amendment rights, but he is not in support of what colleges across the nation are teaching the youth.

“Those that participate in this destructive lifestyle are doomed,” he said. “What these colleges are doing … is teaching the youth of this nation that it is all right to be gay, which is 180 degrees opposite of what the bible says.”

But social work senior Jessica Greenfield said the WBC is interpreting religion contrasting the way she reads the Bible as a Christian. Greenfield held a sign which read “God Loves Everyone, even these WBC folks” because she wanted everyone to see she believes even the most hateful people are loved by God, she said.

“I think they distort the image of God, and I don’t want anyone to walk by their signs and wonder if that’s how God really feels toward them,” she said. “I don’t really want to look at them because it upsets my stomach ­— it is really disgusting.”

Comparative cultures and politics sophomore Adam Harrison held a sign which read “Jesus loves you but everyone else thinks that you’re an a**hole,” and said he attended the protest in hopes of spreading the message that Jesus accepts everyone and homosexuality should be allowed.

“I knew that I wanted to make a change the best way I could, and I thought that humor was probably the best way that I could add to such a touchy subject,” Harrison said. “We’re here to say that being gay is OK.”