OKLAHOMA CITY — Lawyers for an Oklahoma clerk who refused to grant a marriage license to a same-sex couple say a federal judge was wrong to overturn the state’s voter-approved ban on gay marriages.

In a court filing Monday night, the Alliance Defending Freedom cites courts and anthropologists in saying children are better off in a home with a mother and a father.

The group also says that the two women in Tulsa had no fundamental right to marry.

Federal judge Terence Kern rejected Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban last month, saying it excluded one class of citizens from a constitutional right.

But the state’s appeal says that if Kern’s ruling stands, it would send the message that marriage exists “to advance adult desires” rather than putting children’s needs first.