WBC had billed the event on its web site as an anti-sports demonstration against the Dartmouth men's hockey team.
While the hockey team did play against Northeastern University's team nearby at Thompson Arena on Saturday, Charles Hockenbarger, a protester interviewed by The Dartmouth, claimed only to be picketing the state's marriage decision, adding that, "occasionally the author of our descriptions gets a little overzealous."
"Hockey freaks God H8s U! WBC will picket your stupid, cold (really, ice hockey in the middle of winter?! COULD YOU BE MORE LAZY AND UNIMAGINATIVE?) violent, time-wasting crappy Hockey game your SPORT," the web site, godhatesfags.com, read on Saturday.
"We go wherever that we think there's going to be some people," he said, "[even] if it's not necessarily tied to that specific event."
Hockenbarger said that the group decided to hold a demonstration at Dartmouth as part of a larger tour across New Hampshire.
"We took the opportunity since there was a nice little hockey game apparently happening down the street to get out here to Dartmouth, which is, you know, an institution of higher learning, and do a little preaching out here, too," he said.
Picketers brandished signs that read, "Fags Doom Nations," "God Hates Fags," "Fags Can't Marry" and "You Will Eat Your Babies."
"The message is pretty simple America is doomed," Hockenbarger said. "The acceptance of that [homosexual] lifestyle to the point that it is being exulted for marriage is a strong indicator of that doom."
One female protestor chanted a song to the tune of "God Bless America," replacing the lyrics with anti-gay messages.
"God hates America, land of the fags," she sang.
Demonstrators weathered a number of negative responses from passersby some shouted epithets from their cars, and one local resident attempted to distract the protesters by performing a mock striptease in a firefighter's uniform. Meanwhile, Phelps-a-thon, a Cambridge, Mass.-based organization that opposed the WBC, solicited donations online for a pledge drive benefiting the Dartmouth Athletics Department. As of press time, Phelps-a-thon had not reported its fund-raising results on its web site.
Hockenbarger, who said he has participated in thousands of WBC protests, said that he was not discouraged by the negative attention that the demonstrations tend to receive.
"We're not out to convince anybody to join up or any of that," he said. "All we care about is spreading the message."
WBC also received national notice in 1998 for its picketing of the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who was killed because he was gay, and has since continued to make headlines.
"It's guaranteed that almost everyone in the [United States] will disagree with them," Christian Brandt '12, a former co-chair of Gender Sexuality XYZ, said. "So it makes for really good news which I think is partly their goal. I think they feel that it's forwarding their cause that more people know of them, not necessarily that more people agree with them."
Several states have enacted laws aimed at limiting WBC's activities, which have previously included anti-gay picketing at schools, churches and music concerts.
WBC leaders Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper were banned from entering the United Kingdom in 2009 in anticipation of a planned anti-gay protest.
Hockenbarger criticized state government policies that he said violated freedom of speech.
"This is the nation that will get on their soapbox and tell China that they're a horrible place and they're just violating everyone's rights," he said. "But here we have this bastion of free speech that will pass a law against one little church in the middle of the country because they stand outside of a funeral and say, Hey guys if you live your life like that person lived it, you're going to go to hell.'"
Hockenbarger said that WBC complies with local laws when planning demonstrations and obtains permits.
"At the end of the day, the scripture also tells us to obey the laws of man," he said. "And we're not interested in breaking the law. We're only interested in being able to stand peaceably on the sidewalk and speak our peace."
Several Hanover Police officers attended the protest to monitor the demonstration.
Master Patrol Officer Richard Paulsen, who was at the event, said that Hanover Police does not typically oversee protests but monitors them when there is "the potential for violence."
WBC was scheduled to hold additional protests in Manchester, N.H. on Sunday and in Concord, N.H. on Monday.
Westboro Baptist Church Protest from The Dartmouth on Vimeo.
