Sign up for the paNOW newsletter

Iowa religious activist criminally charged in book burning

Dec 6, 2018 | 2:30 PM

ORANGE CITY, Iowa — A northwestern Iowa religious activist who burned four LGBTQ children’s books he’d checked out of an Orange City library has been charged with misdemeanour criminal mischief.

The Sioux City Journal reports 62-year-old Paul Dorr is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 22.

A message left Thursday for Dorr was not immediately returned. No attorney for Dorr appears in online court documents.

Dorr released a nearly 30-minute video on Facebook Live in which he denounced the library for having the LGBTQ books and threw the books into a burning barrel. The video was made Oct. 19, the first day of the city’s gay pride festival.