On December 16th Sun Wenlin, the first person in China to legally fight for the right to same-sex marriage, filed a lawsuit against Furong district Bureau of Civil Affairs in Changsha city, Hunan Province. The case has been put on record on January 5th, making it China’s first case on homosexual marriage rights. “Considering the typicality of the case, its being put on record should be written into history”, remarked by Sun’s attorney agent.
Earlier last year in June, Sun and his boyfriend went to the Furong district Bureau of Civil Affairs’ Registry of Marriages to conduct a marriage registration, but they were refused with the reason that ”no law regulates the legality of same-sex marriage”. At that point Sun decided to fight for their rights by legal means. It was a surprise to a lot of people when the local court put the case on record. The case might have benefitted from the new regulations in the Administrative Procedure Law of PRC on the filing of cases. Working staff at the court required both Sun and his boyfriend to file the lawsuit, since marriage registration is the couple’s common affair. Sun soon added the extra filing materials.
