the news of their marriage. According to certain estimates from 2010, about 80% to 90% of Chinese gay men were married to women, who are known in Chinese as tongqi (, pinyin: ). These marriages, often called "sham marriages", are attributed to the fact that there is significant social pressure from family to marry and to found a family with a partner of the opposite sex. In most of these cases, the women are unaware of their husband's sexual orientation. In 2012, a professor at Sichuan University committed suicide after her husband came out as gay. In some cases, lesbians and gay men deliberately choose to marry each other. LGBT rights groups have urged gay men not to enter these "sham marriages", as they are "a tragedy for both the gay men and the women". During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. state of Utah established an online civil marriage service for couples wishing to marry. The marriage is officiated by Zoom and for an additional fee the couple can obtain an apostille validation stamp for the marriage license provided by Utah state authorities. By October 2022, around 200 same-sex couples in China had married via this online service, though the marriages have no legal status in China. The move has also become particularly popular in Israel where same-sex marriages performed abroad are legally recognised. Legal challenges On 5 January 2016, a court in Changsha, Hunan, agreed to hear a lawsuit filed in December 2015 against the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Furong District. The lawsuit was filed by 26-year-old Sun Wenlin, who in June 2015 had been refused permission by the bureau to marry his 36-year-old partner, Hu Mingliang. On 13 April 2016, with hundreds of same-sex marriage supporters outside, the Changsha court ruled against Sun, who said he would appeal. On May 17, 2016, Sun and Hu were married in a private ceremony in Changsha, expressing their intention to organize another 99 same-sex weddings across the country in order to normalize same-sex marriage in China. On 12 April 2021, the Shenyang Intermediate People's Court in Shenyang, Liaoning ruled that a 79-year-old woman could not sue her female partner of 50 years, whom she accused of stealing ¥294,000 from her bank account, because their relationship is not recognized as a marriage in China. Ouyang Jintong, a lawyer at Beijing Yingke Law Firm, said the court should have considered the length