Do not marry by hiding sexual orientation, and do not treat a marriage of convenience as an easy fix: in law it is a real marriage, and the only exit is divorce

Marrying while hiding sexual orientation is not invalid in law and cannot be revoked; the only exit is divorce. A marriage of convenience is also a real marriage; money earned after marriage counts as joint marital property, and debts both signed and debts for ordinary household spending count as both people’s. The deceived side can ask at divorce for a larger share of property and compensation for mental harm, but whether courts support that is still unsettled.

Cost

No money. The hard part is withstanding family pressure to marry; that may last many years.

Benefit

Article 1051 of the Civil Code provides that a marriage is invalid only in three situations: bigamy, a prohibited kinship for marriage, and not yet of statutory marriage age. Articles 1052 and 1053 provide that revocation is available only in two situations: marriage under coercion, and concealing a serious disease before marriage. Article 17 of Interpretation (I) of the Marriage and Family Book provides that a request to confirm invalidity on grounds outside those three is rejected by judgment. So the only exit is divorce. A registered marriage of convenience is also a lawful marriage. Article 1062 provides that wages, bonuses, and labor remuneration after marriage are joint marital property. Article 1064 provides that debts both signed and debts one side borrowed for ordinary family daily life are joint marital debt. Divorce damages are in Article 1091. Situations that support damages are limited to bigamy, cohabitation with another person, domestic violence, abuse or abandonment of a family member, and “other major fault.” Article 2 of Interpretation (I) limits “cohabitation with another person” to cohabitation with an “opposite-sex person outside the marriage.” So a same-sex relationship can only be argued under “other major fault.” Damages include mental-harm damages; the deceived side must raise them together when suing for divorce; if divorce is refused they are not supported. After the Civil Code took effect, no published court judgments of this kind were found. Under the old law, a 2013 article on the Jiangsu Higher People’s Court website discussed a case of a wife suing for divorce because the husband hid homosexuality. The article listed two views. One held that homosexuality was not among the statutory faults then, so neither a larger property share nor mental compensation should be supported. The author favored the other: treat the deceived side as the “fault-free party,” care for her in dividing property, and also award mental consolation money (nationwide).

Notes

A larger property share and mental compensation appear in only one analysis article, which did not say how the case was finally decided, so whether you can obtain them depends on the specific court. The Civil Code added “other major fault,” giving the deceived side an opening to argue. The statutory text itself is grade A. When both sides in a marriage of convenience each have a same-sex partner, those partners have no protection under marriage law; property must be written separately — see item 18 of this section (same-sex partners put voluntary guardianship and a will in place). Divorce for a marriage of convenience still goes through the 30-day cooling-off period or litigation — see item 15 of this section (negotiated divorce has a 30-day cooling-off period). If a negotiated divorce agreement waives damages, a later suit will not be supported. The first beneficiary is the spouse who would be deceived; next is you: once concealment is discovered, divorce, property division, and child-raising land together.

Sources · 2

1. 全国人大 (2020). 民法典（第一千零五十一至一千零五十四、一千零六十二、一千零六十四、一千零七十九、一千零八十七、一千零九十一条）. flk.npc.gov.cn/detail?id=ff808081729d1efe0172…（国家法律法规数据库）；最高人民法院 (2020). 关于适用《中华人民共和国民法典》婚姻家庭编的解释（一）（法释〔2020〕22 号，第二、十七、八十六至九十条）. flk.npc.gov.cn/detail?id=ff80808177e75f880178…
2. 朱来宽、王洪娟 (2013). 因同性恋导致离婚能否主张损害赔偿？江苏法院网. jsfy.gov.cn/article/26621.html