METAIRIE, La. (RNS) Though he admitted having his hands in his pants, Christian fundamentalist Grant Storms denied Tuesday (March 1) he was masturbating while watching children in a park before being arrested.

Storms, a self-described “Christian patriot” who has protested New Orleans’ annual Southern Decadence gay pride festival, also apologized to those he had maligned, saying, “I was very mean-spirited at times and I apologize.”

Storms denied reports he had confessed to masturbating in his van while parked near a playground at a park.

“I had my hands in my pants,” he said. When asked by a reporter what he was doing with his hands, Storms answered, “I don’t want to get into all that right now. That will come out in court.”

Storms was taken into custody and booked with one count of obscenity after two women told deputies they saw him pleasuring himself in the van. Storms denied he was looking at any children, insisting he was neither a pedophile nor a child molester.

“The impression is that I was out there exposing myself to them and that’s not the case,” he said.

Storms also expressed remorse for his protests at the gay festival, which he has said turns the French Quarter into Sodom and Gomorrah.

“When I look back, there’s a lot of things I would have done differently. I was so proudful. I was very arrogant,” he said, adding later, “I’ll fess up to my shortcomings, and whatever they say against me, they can say it. They have every right now to say it.”

(Michelle Hunter writes for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.)