Participants take part in the gay run, part of Shanghai's gay pride festival. (Photo: VCG)

The legislative affairs commission of China's top legislative body acknowledged that it was advised to include the legalization of same-sex marriage in the civil code.

Yue Zhongming, spokesperson of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, said that they have been advised to include the legalization of same-sex marriage in the civil code when the draft civil code solicited public opinions from October 31 to November 29.

The commission has received 237,057 online suggestions and 5,635 letters, and were mainly about further clarifying scope of close relatives, improving the common debt of spouses and legalizing same-sex marriage, Yue said. Yue did not elaborate on the same-sex marriage request.

The topic has triggered heated discussions on Chinese social media. It was viewed over 400 million times on China's Twitter-like Weibo on Friday.

Some netizens voiced support to the legalization of same-sex marriage. However, some said it's too early as the majority has remained silent on the topic, and it's important to raise awareness on the issue.