Trinity Western University drops mandatory ban on sex outside of heterosexual marriage

Trinity Western University has announced it will change a “community covenant” that prohibits students from participating in any sexual intimacy outside of heterosexual marriage.

WATCH: Trinity Western spokesperson ‘disappointed’ by Supreme Court decision.

1:41 Trinity Western spokesperson ‘disappointed’ by Supreme Court decision

The school’s board of governors voted last week to make the covenant voluntary for students this school year.

The pledge was at the centre of a long-running legal battle over Trinity Western’s plans to open a law school.

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1:24 Intervenor says Supreme Court decision on Trinity Western represents a danger to religious freedom

The university applied to provincial law societies for accreditation in 2012, but was denied in British Columbia and Ontario because of the covenant.

In June, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that requiring a person to behave contrary to their sexual identity is “degrading and disrespectful,” in two landmark decisions that said law societies have the right to deny accreditation to the proposed law school.

The change goes into effect with the start of the new school year in September.

— With files from The Canadian Press