Sun Wenlin (left) and his partner Hu Mingliang stand in front of the Changsha Furong District People's Court on January 5, 2016, the day the court accepted their suit against the marriage registry.
Sun Wenlin has known he was gay since he was 12.
He came out to parents and friends two years later. Now 27, he met his partner Hu Mingliang, a security guard, in 2014.
Inspired by the 2014 British movie "Pride", Sun decided the time was right to settle down with Hu, whom he met online.
"After we saw the movie, I asked him, 'Shall we get married?' He said: "Yes. Let's."
On June, 23, 2015 -- their one-year anniversary and three days before the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to extend same-sex marriage rights across all 50 states -- the couple went to their local registry office in southern China's Hunan Province and tried to officially tie the knot.
The registry denied their application, insisting only heterosexual couples could marry.
Furious, Sun sued the registry for refusing their application to marry in December 2015.
To his lawyer Shi Fulong's surprise, the Changsha Furong District People's Court accepted the case in early January.
Sun and Hu became the first gay couple in China legally fighting for the right to marry.
The court hearing had been scheduled for Thursday but on Tuesday they were notified it would be delayed. Friends and supporters had already made the journey to Changsha -- more than 900 miles (1,500 km) from Beijing.
The court confirmed the case was delayed by declined to give further details. Calls to the registry office went answered.
"I just feel too powerless," Sun said. "They just wanted to drag it out, because no matter what the result would be, they wouldn't know how to react."
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