Gay Father Gives Up Court Battle for Son

A homosexual father, locked for years in a bitter court fight with his fundamentalist ex-wife over the custody of their teen-age son, said he is withdrawing from the nationally publicized case and will no longer try to contact the boy.

Frank Batey, 41, of Palm Springs, said in a five-page press release that he was quitting his legal battle in the San Diego courts for custody of Brian, 14, because it “would be foolish to continue my efforts in a town where religious bigots have inoculated judges with intimidation and ignorance.”

“Today, I have filed with the court in San Diego my intent to withdraw from efforts to be a parent,” Batey said in the release, dated Wednesday. Efforts Thursday to confirm Batey’s filing with the court were unsuccessful because the file had been sealed.

In November, San Diego Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell ruled that Brian should be kept in a foster home because it would be “detrimental” for him to live with either his father or his mother, Betty Lou Batey, 41.

The custody battle gained national notoriety when Mrs. Batey, dissatisfied with an earlier court order granting custody to her former husband, abducted her son and disappeared with him for 19 months, then resurfaced in Denver in April, 1984. Before Brian eventually resurfaced, his mother served 13 days in jail there for refusing to disclose his whereabouts.

The fight then shifted to San Diego, where Mrs. Batey, backed by two fundamentalist Christian organizations--Washington-based Concerned Women for America and California-based American Christian Cause--tried to have the earlier order granting custody to Batey reversed. After hearings that included testimony on sex,

Satan, homosexuality and the nature of sin, McConnell made her ruling removing Brian from the custody of both parents.

Mrs. Batey also was found guilty on three counts of contempt of court in connection with her son’s abduction.

In the press release, Batey criticized the judge’s decision to keep Brian in a foster home.

“Now it is a dispassionate court which holds Brian hostage,” he wrote. “Neutrality is not in the court’s vocabulary.

“The court has refused to listen to many of the recommendations of its own appointed advisers to keep Brian from coming home to live with his gay dad.

“By withdrawing, I will have peace of mind knowing that Brian will not have to make a godawful choice which Betty Batey has demanded from the courts for over four years--having to choose between parents he loves.”

Batey also cited “crippling expenditures” from the protracted legal battle as a reason for his withdrawal from the case.

Batey said he and his homosexual lover are trying to sell a house in Palm Springs and apartments in Laguna Beach to pay the legal fees, according to a copy of the 45-page brief Batey said he filed with the court on Wednesday, a document supplied to United Press International in San Diego.

Mrs. Batey, citing a gag order in the case, declined Thursday to comment on her former husband’s decision. Attorneys for both Bateys also declined to comment.