Metro Weekly

Anti-gay New Orleans preacher arrested for masturbating near playground

”That Friday I was reclined in the chair in the van, and I had opened my pants and I had my hand in my underwear…. I’m not a pedophile. I’m not a child molester, and I don’t go exposing myself to children…. I understand the hypocrisy. I understand it clearly, and it deeply hurts me. And when I look back, there are a lot of things I would have done differently.”

Grant Storms who, according to WDSU, is a conservative preacher who led a 2003 parade against Southern Decadence in New Orleans, Louisiana. He called the Mardi Gras-type event a three-day orgy in the streets; and reportedly sent video of participants to legislators asking them halt the festival. He seems to be offering an apology of sorts for that in light of his arrest.

The news station has video from a press conference where a tearful Storms said he had developed an addiction to pornography recently, but did not fully admit to masturbating in public:

“Pornography is destructive and it can ruin a person’s life, and it ruined my life. … Do I have problems? Yes. Did I do something wrong? Yes.”

Two women allegedly saw him parked in a car near a park where children were at play. When police arrested him, he initially claimed he had been urinating into a bottle. (WDSU)

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