An Oklahoma mom is devasted by a judge's ruling declaring that she is no longer her son's legal mother. She and her wife divorced and her ex moved in with the child's sperm donor. Kris Williams and Rebekah Wilson were married in 2019, and soon afterward Wilson gave birth to son Warren. The former couple partnered with a man named Harlan Vaughn as their sperm donor.
They later divorced, and a recent court order terminated Williams' parental rights. On Monday, Judge Lynn McGuire of the Seventh Judicial Court of Oklahoma ruled that Williams is not the child's mom and that the sperm donor, Vaughn, is his legal parent, KFOR reported. Williams is shocked by the judge's decision that contends she is not the child's mother.
Williams and Wilson were well-known activists in the LGBTQ+ community.
In a 2022 story, KFOR reported that Williams and Wilson dated for five years before getting married. Both women fought for equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community in Oklahoma.
Williams explained to the news outlet that they always talked about having a family and used the app Just A Baby to find a sperm donor. They were successful when they found Vaughn. "That was my dream," Williams said. "My dream came true."
Wilson became pregnant by artificial insemination.
In September 2018, Wilson entered a "Known Sperm Donor Agreement," NBC News reported. In KFOR's 2022 story, Williams' lawyer, Robyn Hopkins, was quoted as saying, "There was a contract here, and the contract was done in Texas at a conference between the sperm donor and the biological mother."
Hopkins also stated that Williams cut the baby's umbilical cord in the delivery room and that her name was listed on his legal Oklahoma birth certificate as mother.
"It's pretty simple; black and white," Hopkins said. "I'm not sure why we are getting caught up in the gray."
Williams and Wilson raised the baby together for two years.
Wilson gave birth to Warren in August 2019. Williams and Wilson and baby Warren were a family, along with Williams' teenage son. The relationship began to fall apart in 2021. As things heated up, Wilson reportedly denied Williams contact with Warren and was granted a protection order claiming abuse, KFOR reported in 2022.
According to court documents, shortly after the relationship ended, Wilson moved in with Vaughn, NBC News reported.
Wilson and Vaughn now live together.
Since Williams and Wilson's breakup, Wilson and Vaughn have started a family of their own. The judge's recent ruling stated that Williams has no parental rights to Warren.
Vaughn released a statement to KFOR, writing that he and Wilson were pleased and relieved with the judge's ruling. "We remain focused exclusively on our child's protection and well-being," he noted in the statement.
The judge insists that Williams did not go through the proper channels to legally become Warren's mother.
Even though her name is on his birth certificate, the judge contends that Williams did not legally adopt Warren. Therefore, parental rights were given to Wilson and Vaughn, as they are his biological parents.
NBC News reported that in Oklahoma, married couples are presumed to be parents of children born during a marriage. McGuire contends this is not the case for Williams and Wilson because the state's parentage act predates legal same-sex marriage in Oklahoma and doesn'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 noted in the ruling.
Williams plans to appeal the decision to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Hopkins does not believe the ruling is just burdening same-sex couples with adoption but that it highlights the disparities between same-sex couples and heterosexual couples.
"Show me where the case law says that gay people have to adopt their own children?" Hopkins asked KFOR. "Why do gay people have to have a home study and a background check to adopt their own children and pay upwards of a couple thousand dollars and go to court to make it official?"
