At a Catholic school graduation in Canada, over half of students made a statement in support of their school’s gay-straight alliance, by wearing rainbow socks.

Students at the Vanier Catholic Secondary School wore the socks at the ceremony to support the newly-formed alliance.

The school was subjected to controversy over several months as the policy of the church diocese policy which states that homosexuality as “intrinsically disordered”, and said homosexual acts were a “grave depravity”.

Following the Yukon Department of Education’s assertion that the school needed to adopt a more inclusive policy, and eventually the school did so, allowing the gay-straight alliance to be formed.

The newly formed group has around 30 members.

At the graduation ceremony, about 45 out of 81 students wore rainbow socks.