This is not the first time Sun Wenlin has come into the limelight.

In April 2016, Sun and his boyfriend Hu Mingliang filed a lawsuit against authorities in Changsha, capital city of China’s southern Hunan Province, after they were unable to get a marriage license. They lost the case, as the court ruled that China’s Marriage Law does not recognize same-sex marriage. But the case, being the first of its kind, attracted considerable media attention.

Two years later, Sun Wenlin is again at the center of a heated discussion, after he responded to a government call for public consultation to a proposed revision of the country’s civil code, which includes provisions on contract rights, marriage and family, torts, and more. (As of October 24, there were more than 380,000 public submissions; the consultation period closes on November 3.) On his official WeChat account, Sun suggested including legal protection for same-sex marriage and called for lesbian, gay, and bisexual communities to submit similar proposals to the government.

His call quickly attracted more than 100,000 views on WeChat and ignited a fierce public debate. One commenter wrote, “This proposal has my unconditional support. Before my lover died of illness in June, we had always wanted our partnership to be legally recognized. He couldn’t live to see the day when marriage equality becomes a reality. I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. As a legal professional, I would like to fight [for marriage equality] for him, for myself, and for people who have the same demands as us. I will ask my friends to do this with me.” Read more via Supchina