Hundreds of people turned out to counter-protest members of the Westboro Baptist Church who had traveled to picket Maryland courthouses on Wednesday - the day courthouses began to perform same-sex marriages in the state.

The church posted online that it was targeting Maryland as it had been the first in the US to legalize same-sex marriage in a popular vote.

‘Westboro brings these words of warning, knowing they may be the last that you get,’ the group posted online.