Homosexual Father Drops Suit Seeking Custody of Son, 14
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SAN DIEGO — The legal dispute over whether a 14-year-old boy should live with his fundamentalist Christian mother or homosexual father is apparently over after the father withdrew from the case, saying he will no longer try to contact his son.
In a press release issued Thursday, Frank Batey of Palm Springs said he filed his intent to withdraw from the San Diego Superior Court case he had brought because it would “be foolish to continue my effort in a town where religious bigots have inoculated judges with intimidation and ignorance.”
The case gained national notoriety when the boy, Brian, and his mother, Betty Lou Batey, disappeared for 20 months, resurfacing in April, 1984.
A San Diego judge ruled in November that Brian be placed in a foster home because it would be “detrimental” for him to live with either parent.
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