Members of the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church protest on Prices Fork Road in front of Blacksburg Middle School on Friday. Six of them came to Blacksburg.

Virginia Tech students cheer as members of Westboro Baptist Church end their rally in front of Blacksburg Middle School. Hundreds of people showed up in opposition.

MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

A member of the Westboro Baptist Church holds signs across the street from counterprotesters at the intersection of Main and Roanoke streets Friday afternoon in downtown Blacksburg.

SHARLA BARDIN The Roanoke Times

About 100 Virginia Tech students, who were asked by university administrators to move their counterprotest several blocks away from the Westboro Baptist Church group, march through downtown Blacksburg on Friday. The group gathered in response to Westboro's anti-gay and anti-Semitic message.

BLACKSBURG -- Anna Phelps forgot her gloves Friday.

"I'm cold," the 6-year-old member of Westboro Baptist Church told her dad, Ben Phelps. "Are you all right with your hands in your coat, though?" he asked.

She nodded, then crouched behind a police barricade on Prices Fork Road, using her child-sized "God Hates Fags" sign as a windbreak.

In all, six members of the Phelps clan, including three children younger than 12, traveled to Blacksburg on Friday to protest America's growing acceptance of gays, the Obama administration and Jews who refuse to repent for the death of Jesus Christ.

Their songs and chants were mostly drowned out by the car horns and voices of counterdemonstrators, about 200 of whom stood along Prices Fork Road.

About 70 students were absent from Blacksburg Middle School, said Nelson Simpkins, the division's director of secondary education. He said it was unclear how many were related to the protest. Some parents also pulled their children out of classes early.

Dozens of police and sheriff's deputies from Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Virginia Tech and Montgomery County directed traffic, provided crowd control and enforced buffer zones around the Westboro Baptist protesters at three locations -- the middle school, the Blacksburg Jewish Community Center on Roanoke Street and the National Bank at South Main and Roanoke streets.

"We're here to protect everyone's rights," Blacksburg police Lt. Joe Davis said.

Westboro Baptist, founded by the Rev. Fred Phelps in Topeka, Kan., and made up almost entirely of his children and grandchildren, has held demonstrations almost daily across the country for 19 years and often targets the sites of tragedy, such as military funerals and the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia where 25 died in a massive explosion Monday. They see their protests as loving warnings meant to save souls, Shirley Phelps-Roper said.

Their presence downtown drew about 500 counterdemonstrators. Many held nonsensical signs that read, "What the french toast?" and "Pickle Your Kumquat."

The carnival air pleased Phelps-Roper, who said, "It makes a wonderful backdrop for our message. Their destruction is imminent."

Nyanne Hicks of Blacksburg said she considered staying away as many, including Mayor Ron Rordam, had encouraged.

"But I don't think we should just ignore it. It's kind of dangerous to assume that young people out there watching won't think this is OK."

Other counterdemonstrations were held across town and campus. More than 100 people gathered at Tech's Graduate Life Center plaza. Dan Harrington, father of slain Tech student Morgan Harrington, was among them. Her body was found in January in a field near Charlottesville.

Dan Harrington said he attended Friday after seeing a reference to his daughter on the Westboro Baptist Web site. He described them as the "American Taliban."

"What's their agenda? That's the piece I can't quite figure out," he said.

Staff writers Anna Mallory and Sharla Bardin contributed to this report.