A Chinese volleyball athlete has taken the rare step of publicly revealing she is gay by releasing a marriage-registry-style photo of her and her girlfriend on Weibo. “She doesn’t need to do anything, but I am surrendered time and again. She is the whole part of me, for one year and another,” athlete Sun Wenjing wrote on the social media platform last week. She announced she was a lesbian on September 9, a date with double digits of 9 that is regarded by the Chinese as a symbol of eternity and often selected by couples to register their marriage. China bans same-sex marriage, and LGBT people face widespread discrimination in the country despite years of campaigning for acceptance and equal rights by activists. Very few, if any, Chinese celebrities have publicly admitted they are gay. China has recently been deleting LGBT social media accounts of university groups and other organisations and called out “sissy” culture among celebrities and called for more traditional gender stereotypes to be promoted. Sun’s post received 48,000 likes and more than 4,000 comments on Weibo, most of which were supportive. “Both of you are beautiful. Blessings!” wrote one user. “You are brave. I don’t know when I and my lover can act like you and your girlfriend in public, by not hiding our sex orientation at all,” another person commented.