Blue-eyed Libby Phelps, grinning ear to ear, has a special message for Just Out readers: “God hates you and you’re going to hell.”

Phelps, granddaughter of notorious Westboro Baptist Church scion Fred Phelps, was greeted by raucous laughter and a thick throng of counter-protesters just outside the Portland State University campus about 7:30 am this morning, as WBC made a stop on their “fag-bashing” Oregon tour in gay-friendly Portland, ostensibly to ridicule PSU for implementing “gender-neutral” bathrooms on campus.

Reaction was mostly measured to the WBC protesters - all four of them, that is. Wearing puffy parkas with American flags spilling out of pockets and onto the sidewalk – and with Libby flashing a big smile as she stomped on a rainbow pride flag – the four WBC protesters attracted a few dozen rambunctious counter-protesters bearing signs, chanting slogans and, at one wonderful point, drowning out the WBC’s singing (“God Hates America!”) with a chorus of laughter.

But back to blue-eyed Libby. She seemed to be taking the melee in stride, even welcoming the counter-protests’ attention. “I love it! It’s awesome,” she said, with a kind of giddy glee. “This is my favorite part, I love it when people come and block my sign, it’s awesome. Cause it draws so much more attention over here, and so people come over and look and be like, oh what’s the big the big fuss over there? And they’ll come over and look.”

There was a much larger crowd, actually, just down the block from the WBC mayhem, at SW Market between 11th and 12th – a PSU Queer Resource Center-sanctioned peaceful protest that attracted almost 100 PSU students and supportive community members.

Austin, a 23 year old self-identified queer male, was one of them. “Everybody has freedom of speech,” he said, referencing both protests this morning, “and freedom to live their lives the way that they should without any discrimination towards anybody.” What does he think of the concept of gender-neutral bathrooms, which WBC was protesting today? “I think it’s a great idea, especially for transgender people. It makes it more comfortable, and I don’t get why they don’t see that.”

Nif, a 22 year old lesbian friend of Austin’s who heard about the event through facebook, was there to see what all the fuss was about, but also because she’s “been really hatin’ on the Westboro Baptist Church for a while,” she said. “I just can’t believe someone has that much hatred for people who haven’t done anything to them.”

Out and out hatred seemed less the WBC message this morning than, well, simply getting Portland caught up in their media circus act. Libby Phelps admitted “we’re not trying to change anybody’s mind” with their protests, however ridiculous they may seem. The WBC’s mission, she said, is much simpler: “we’re trying to condemn the world, so on the judgment day you can’t say you didn’t see this message.”

(photo above right of the swelling PSU queer and allied crowd at SW 11th and Market, by a special Just Out operative stationed in a nearby condo)