Following months of heated debate — and a marathon meeting Thursday night — the Toronto Catholic school board voted in favour of amending its code of conduct to include gender issues.

The move came on the heels of the Archdiocese of Toronto — the Catholic Church’s spiritual leadership in the GTA — weighing in on the side of inclusivity. A report submitted at a Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) meeting Thursday evening said the archdiocese would support the board in changing its code of conduct policy to include controversial terms: gender expression, gender identity, family status and marital status.

Those terms are identified in the Human Rights Code as prohibited grounds of discrimination.

“The archdiocese will accept (the terms),” the report reads, provided that the amended policy “be interpreted through the lens of the Catholic faith as articulated by the teachings of the church and protected in legislation.”

After much debate during the seven-hour meeting, which stretched into the early hours of Friday morning and included members of the public making submissions to the board, the trustees voted eight to four in favour of including the terms.

The dissenting votes were Garry Tanuan, Michael Del Grande, Nancy Crawford and Teresa Lubinski. There were efforts by some to defer the matter to a future meeting, but others were determined to resolve the issue.

Following the vote, board chair Maria Rizzo, a vocal supporter of including the four terms, told the Star, “God heard my prayers.”

“We finally, finally, after months and months of turmoil and creating this division, we finally came together as a board and did the right thing by our students and our families.”

Similarly, trustee Markus de Domenico said “it was a difficult vote, but it was well-worth all the effort… I know we did the right thing.”

The TCDSB staff report noted that the matter was “urgent” and “time-sensitive” because school boards were supposed to have updated their codes by Nov. 4 to include the language, as directed by the Ministry of Education.

The issue had been mired in controversy for months and had deeply divided the TCDSB community, leading to heated public debates, with some making hostile comments about the LGBTQ community and calling on trustees to “stop this Luciferian nonsense” and “repent.”

The report was the first time the archdiocese’s views on the matter had been made public. The archdiocese, led by Cardinal Thomas Collins, is made up of nearly two million Catholics, 225 parishes and four missions. The report was the result of ongoing discussions behind the scenes between the archdiocese and board staff in trying to come up with language for TCDSB policy that follows the law and respects Catholic teaching.

In the end, board staff proposed wording for the policy that is “interpreted through the lens of the Catholic faith” as articulated by church teachings, and also in keeping with the Education Act, the ministry directive and the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Under the section called Standards of Behaviour, the language will now state that all members of the school community must “respect and treat others fairly, regardless of, for example, race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status or disability.”

The Thursday meeting of the Student Achievement and Well-Being, Catholic Education and Human Resources Committee attracted about 100 members of the public, many there for the policy issue. Before the vote, trustees heard from numerous delegations, on both sides of the issue — but many members of the public were gone by the time of the board voted on the matter around 1:40 a.m.

Kyle Iannuzzi, a former student trustee and member of the LGBTQ community, addressed the board, urging trustees to adopt the language. He said he had been a victim of bullying at school and considered suicide, noting LGBTQ youth are disproportionately affected by hate, harassment and violence in school.

“This is matter of life or death,” he told the trustees. “No one is asking you to abandon Catholic teachings; in fact I’m asking you to embrace them. There’s nothing in Catholic teaching that would prevent you from including everyone.”

But his presentation was disrupted by Iola Fortino, who’s opposed to the terms and started yelling, “Help them not to sin.”

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Clutching a rosary, she later told the Star, “Catholic education is special. You come here not to sin … Homosexuality is a sin.”

Parent Christopher Elliott, also opposed, said he was concerned that society and government, “is slowly taking away our rights as parents to raise our children according to Catholic beliefs and values.”

“Your vote as board members will have far reaching consequences, I daresay it will be historic,” he told trustees. “It will either be the day where you took a firm stand for Christ and defended our Catholic beliefs and values or … the day you timidly surrendered them for all of us.”

Trustee Del Grande, who opposed the motion, had argued that if the board include the four terms it might as well be inclusive of anyone. He then presented a list of unusual sexual fetishes, including attraction to animals or old people, but was ruled out of order.

Meanwhile, parent Carla DeSantis who supports inclusion warned trustees, “the tone that you set will have vast repercussions.”

“You can either go down in history as the board that voted for inclusion, acceptance and safety of all students or as the one that succumbed to the loud voices of fear-mongering and exclusive views.”

As in past meetings, members of the public argued that including terms such as gender identity and gender expression is counter to Catholic doctrine that stipulates there are just two sexes, and that Catholic schools should use denominational rights guaranteed under the Constitution to keep them from having to adopt the language.

Others noted the Catholic Church teaches that all individuals are children of God and that the board is provincially funded and must abide by legislation.

Before the Thursday meeting, trustee Norm Di Pasquale, said most of his constituents backed him up in supporting inclusive language.

“They want a progressive Catholic board,” he told the Star, adding “students overwhelmingly support inclusive language.”

In recent weeks, trustees received emails from both sides. Those opposed to the terms warned trustees they risked “eternal damnation” and should resign if they supported inclusion.

The matter had been debated at TCDSB meetings since the spring, with members of the public making impassioned pleas on both sides.

The issue surfaced after the ministry sent school boards a directive in October 2018 saying it had updated its provincial code of conduct, expanding the grounds under which discrimination is prohibited to include the four terms. The memo noted that board policies must be consistent with the province’s and adhere to the Ontario Human Rights Code.

In August, the ministry issued another directive, again making note of the provincial code of conduct and the new Ontario-wide cellphone ban, which came into effect on Monday.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce on Friday praised the school board for its decision.

“I express my support for TCDSB affirming the importance of human rights and human dignity for all children,” he said. “I have long believed that every child should see themselves reflected in their class, curriculum, and school community. Today, we can say with confidence that they do.”