A local pastor said Sunday that the anti-homosexuality demonstrations by the Westboro Baptist Church are wrongly based in hate, not love.

Members of the Topeka, Kan., church returned to Casper on Sunday to demonstrate outside local churches that surround City Park.

Father Royce Brown, of St. Mark's Episcopal church, was reluctant to comment on the Phelps' demonstration but expressed some distaste for the group's message.

"Anytime you protest out of hate you've got the wrong basis," he said. "If you protest, you should protest out of love."

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who grew up in Casper. The group also demonstrated in Casper on Friday.

Members of the Topeka church have traveled to Wyoming every year since Shepard's death to protest against homosexuality.

Margie Phelps, daughter of church leader Rev. Fred Phelps, said her church is pressuring city officials to let it place a monument, which would claim Shepard is in hell, on city property.

Several anti-hate protesters gathered outside of St. Mark's at 9:30 a.m. holding "Honk for Matt" and "Casper, no home for hate" signs. They stood across the street from Phelps' group.

Sam Cole, a 23-year-old rights activist from Austin, Texas who calls himself a "hate fighter," travels the country to protest against demonstrations like the Phelps', he said.

"Not necessarily in Casper, or Wyoming, but in Texas, where I come from, I've done a lot of activism down there as far as equal rights and gay and lesbian rights," he explained.

Drivers passing by the demonstration honked in response to the anti-hate signs and one yelled out his window "Don't judge" as he passed by the Phelps demonstrators.

Chief of Police Tom Pagel, who arrived at the park with several of his officers, said the demonstrations in Casper had been "mostly uneventful."

Phelps asked that police be present during the demonstrations here. Their request will cost the city's taxpayers roughly $1,500, officials have said. He did not attend Sunday's demonstrations.