Bigotry’s Aftermath

I read the concluding chapter in the three-year saga of the Bateys’ custody battle (L.A. Times, July 12). With the sharp stroke of a pen and the sharper blow of bigotry, Brian Batey has undergone a “parentectomy.” The words of his homosexual father, Frank, sound so simple, so facile: “I have filed . . . my intent to withdraw from efforts to be a parent.”

Parenting is a special gift, shared by a child and his/her mother and father. It is a relationship that cannot be wiped out by judgmental onlookers or by confused and exhausted parents. Brian is his father’s son--nothing, no one can change that. The court has no right to destroy that relationship and Frank Batey has no right to renege on it!

Despite his words of denial, Frank Batey will always be Brian’s father! He owes it to his son to continue to battle for that reality.

AGNES G. HERMAN

Lake San Marcos