SILVERTON -- The counterprotesters outside City Hall in this Marion County town today significantly outnumbered the protesters who inspired them: three young women and a man from a Kansas church, here to register their disdain with the recent election of the nation's first openly transgender mayor, Stu Rasmussen.

The quartet spread out along one side of North Water Street, feet planted on American flags spread on the sidewalk and hoisting large laminated posterboards on each arm. Double-sided and easy to read from passing vehicles and local television trucks positioned half a block away, the signs offered assorted damnation -- "Barack Obama = Antichrist," "God Hates You," "You're Going to Hell" and "Fag Media Shame."

Protest in Silverton

It wasn't the first time anti-gay evangelicals from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., had come to Oregon to protest. That was two years ago, when followers picketed the funeral of Navy Seal Marc Lee, killed on patrol in Iraq. Among other right-of-center beliefs, Westboro's Rev. Fred Phelps and his followers claim U.S. combat deaths are God's punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

The group began a whirlwind day of demonstrations, starting at Portland State University before hitting the Swedish and German consulates and then driving south. So Silverton, where voters expressed their preference for the breast-augmented Rasmussen over incumbent mayor Ken Hector 52 to 39 percent, wasn't surprised when the tiny group of protesters showed up and unpacked their posters.

The counterprotesters were waiting across the two-lane street -- men in skirts and boots, moms with babes in arm, lifelong Silverton residents alongside kids playing hooky from Salem schools. The crowd of about 150 waved and drummed and hugged. Their signs, homemade, hurriedly produced on office laser printers and painted on the back of campaign yard signs, focused on the positive.

"My love is bigger than your hate," read one. "We love Stu (and so does God)." "Everyone is welcome in Silverton."

For nearly an hour, the two sides faced off in a tense demonstration of wills. Mostly, the cool air was silent except for passing pickup trucks and school buses. One Kansas visitor mumbled a riff from Aerosmith's hard rock ditty, "Dude looks like a lady." Another pointed a stone smile at boys who threw curses out the windows of passing cars.

When the church members began to chant, a man beat a drum to drown them out.

A woman pushing a baby jogger past City Hall did a doubletake on her run, backing up to question 16-year-old Victoria Phelps, whose family runs the small Kansas church.

"I'm a Christian," Lesley Brighton said, clearly perplexed by the girl's "God Hates Fags" sign. "This is some kind of joke, right?"

No, it's deadly serious, Phelps replied. Electing a transgender mayor, she said, was an abomination.

"I don't expect for it to sink in but it's our duty to come out here and preach to these people because they're so proud of having a transvestite mayor," Phelps said. "It's disgusting. And where was it? Was it Isaiah? Deuteronomy? About it being an abomination?"

Brighton shook her head. "I've read the Bible cover to cover," Brighton said. "Bottom line: love beats hate."

Then she pushed her hat over her ears, gripped the handles of the jogger and set off between the gauntlet of pro and con signs.

Read an earlier story about Rasmussen's election here.

-- Kimberly A.C. Wilson; kimberlywilson@news.oregonian.com