Homophobic Reverend Grant Storms Arrested On Obscenity Charge; Caught Masturbating In New Orleans Public Park Near Children’s Playground

The Reverend Grant Storms, a vehement, vocal anti-gay Christian fundamentalist famous for his bullhorn protest of the Southern Decadence festival in New Orleans’ French Quarter, has been arrested and charged with an obscenity for allegedly masturbating in a public park, according to a report by the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The 53 year old Storms was taken into custody Friday at Lafreniere Park after two women reported seeing him masturbating in the driver's seat of his van, which was parked near the carousel and playground, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office report said. The first woman told police she was taking her children to the playground and parked next to the van at about noon. As she was walking around her own vehicle, she noticed the van windows were down and the occupant was "looking at the playground area that contained children playing, with his zipper down...," the report said. The woman noted that he was masturbating and quickly ushered her children out of her car. She told a second woman, who walked to the van and also spotted the man masturbating, the report said. The second witness told deputies that the driver saw her and tried to conceal the zipper area of his pants with his hand. The two women flagged down a park employee who notified the Sheriff's Office. The employee detained the man, later identified as Storms, until deputies arrived. Storms explained to deputies he was having lunch at the park when he decided to urinate using a bottle instead of the restroom. Deputies booked him and bond was set at $5,000, but he was released from the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna on Sunday because of jail crowding. He is infamous for arming followers with bullhorns, Bibles and picket signs to protest Southern Decadence, the three-day gay festival held in the French Quarter during Labour Day weekend. In 2003, Storms attempted to shut down what Southern Decadence organizer Chuck Robinson called a peaceful festival that celebrates gay and alternative lifestyles, although the attempt failed. "He's done everything through the years to disturb that and try to make it into something nasty that it's not," Robinson said. "If the Rev. Storms is caught doing that in our city, it is ludicrous and heinous that he would have the nerve to complain about any kind of sexuality." Because of Storms’ disruptive displays, New Orleans City Council adopted ordinances banning the use of megaphones and other such devices in the French Quarter, though the law requires a certain decibel meter reading before it can be enforced.