A same-sex Oklahoma couple, Kris Williams and Rebekah Wilson, determined to have a child. They discovered a sperm donor, every part labored out, after which the couple formally married whereas Rebekah was pregnant with the infant. When their son was born, he was given Kris’s surname, with each Rebekah and Kris have been listed as dad and mom on the delivery certificates.

By the point the kid was two years previous, nonetheless, the couple broke up, with Rebekah alleging throughout the divorce proceedings that Kris had been abusive in the direction of her and their son. Rebekah then took the son and moved in with the sperm donor / bio-dad, Harlan Vaughn, and efficiently argued in courtroom that Kris was not in actual fact, the kid’s father or mother.

An Oklahoma choose agreed, at the least initially. Kris’s title was retroactively faraway from the delivery certificates — although the choose agreed to later reinstate her title, with no assure of any accompanying parental rights. Within the meantime, Rebekah had one other youngster with Harlan.

In accordance with a courtroom submitting, the preliminary sperm donation settlement was solely made between Rebekah and Harlan, who signed a doc acknowledging that Rebekah would “conceive and lift” the kid alone, and that Harlan would conform to “facilitate the adoption of the minor youngster if requested to take action.” The sperm donation paperwork makes no point out of Kris, or her potential parental standing. Following the delivery of the kid, Kris didn’t take any formal or official steps to legally undertake her son, aside from placing her title on the delivery certificates. Due to this fact, the choose argued, in accordance with the sperm donation settlement, the kid’s parental rights reverted again to Rebekah and Harlan.

(Curiously, that very same doc additionally particularly states that Kris and Rebekah had stopped having intercourse whereas Rebekah was pregnant, and that they’d not intercourse since getting legally married, and due to this fact they may “pursue an annulment primarily based upon the failure to consummate their marriage” — which is each a minor element, but additionally one which speaks to the antiquated nature of this specific authorized clusterfuck.)

I am going to quote nineteenth Information immediately right here:

“I do not really feel like we should always should undertake our personal youngsters,” [Kris] Williams informed the nineteenth. “If I used to be a person, then no one might come again and you already know, query whether or not that youngster was mine or not, after they’re the age of two.” 

McGuire reinstated Williams on the delivery certificates in June, and Williams’ title stays. However the subject of Williams’ parental rights was nonetheless undecided till February 13, when McGuire dominated that Oklahoma’s parentage act predated marriage equality and due to this fact did not apply to Williams and Wilson.

[…]

Authorized specialists warn that the case might have substantial implications for marriage equality nationwide. Advocates battled a variety of instances to enshrine same-sex marriage protections after the Supreme Courtroom granted these rights nationwide in 2015. Amongst these fights was the correct of parentage. The 2015 Supreme Courtroom case Pavan v. Smith discovered that it was unconstitutional to deal with queer {couples} otherwise than heterosexual {couples} when it got here to presuming parentage. If married heterosexual {couples} have been presumed to be dad and mom of kids born throughout their marriage, the identical have to be true for LGBTQ+ {couples}. 

My sister-in-law gave delivery to my nephew final June; I am going to admit to ignorance that I used to be shocked when my sister stated that she nonetheless needed to legally undertake him. Granted, that was New York state, not Oklahoma, so I wrongly assumed issues can be simpler. However apparently not! And this sort of ugly bureaucratic state of affairs has made me wish to name her and ensure all of the t’s are crossed. Oof.

An Oklahoma choose simply transferred a lesbian mother’s parental rights to her son’s sperm donor [Kate Sosin and Sara Luterman / 19th News]