Oklahoma County District Judge Lynne McGuire ruled on Monday that a lesbian mom, Kris Williams, had failed to adopt her son and therefore forfeited her parenting rights to his sperm donor.
19th News reports that Kris Williams and her ex-partner Rebekah Wilson planned to have their son and found sperm donor Harlan Vaughn on a paternity website together and got married while Wilson was pregnant. Williams and Wilson raised their son together for two years until they couple split sourly in 2021. Wilson then moved in with the sperm donor (further details as to how this relationship progressed are unclear) and took her son with her. She then argued that Williams was not the mother of their son. Judge Lynne McGuire agreed and retroactively removed Williams from their son’s birth certificate last May.
“I don’t feel like we should have to adopt our own children,” Williams told the 19th. “If I was a man, then nobody could come back and you know, question whether that child was mine or not, after they’re the age of two.”
McGuire ended up reinstating Williams on the birth certificate in June but the issue of Williams’ parental rights was up in the air until this week, when McGuire ruled that Oklahoma’s parentage act predated marriage equality and therefore didn’t apply to Williams and Wilson.
“[The act] does not take into account same-sex marriage, and there is no presumption that the wife of the mother is automatically presumed the parent of a child born during the marriage,” McGuire decided.
“Today, I’m disappointed to be an Oklahoman,” Williams’ attorney Robyn Hopkins told the 19th. “I feel like this is our community’s cry for help and we need all hands on deck. I’m comparing it to a natural disaster.” Hopkins says they will immediately appeal the decision.
