Antigay Rev. Arrested for Masturbating in a Park

One of the loudest voices against the annual Southern Decadence festival in New

Orleans's French Quarter was arrested Friday afternoon for masturbating

in a public park.

Rev. Grant Storms, 53, was arrested at Lafreniere Park in Metairie, La., a suburb outside of New Orleans, according to the Times-Picayune. He told police he was having lunch in a van with his friend, but needed to urinate, so he used a bottle instead of a bathroom.



Two women in the park saw Storms reportedly masturbating in his van, while watching children, and notified a parks employee who proceeded to call police.



Storms was released from the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center due to jail overcrowding.



Storms has orchestrated counter-events for Southern Decadence in the past, and in 2004, filed a lawsuit against gay rights group Action Wisconsin for defamation, but the suit was thrown out of court. He has also been an advocate for cleaning up the French Quarter, and has gone as far as filming sexual acts that took place during Southern Decadence, and screening his videos to lawmakers as a way to coerce them to stop allowing the annual festival from taking place.