1973 in LGBTQ rights
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This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1973.
Events
January
- 1 – Maryland becomes the first state to ban same-sex civil marriages. It does so by passing a statue restricting marriage to heterosexual couples.[1]
- 27 – The Metropolitan Community Church's headquarters in Los Angeles is burned to the ground by an unknown assailant.[2][3] No persons are inside of the building at the time of the fire.
April
- 22 – The first gay protest in Santiago, Chile was organised at Plaza de Armas.[4]
June
- 24 – The UpStairs Lounge arson attack in the French Quarter of New Orleans kills 32 members of a Metropolitan Community Church congregation meeting.[5]
August
- Pride Week 1973, the first major LGBT pride event in Canada, is held simultaneously in several Canadian cities.[6]
October
- 10 – Following a lobbying campaign by the Gay Alliance Toward Equality, Toronto City Council adopts a policy forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in municipal hiring, making the city the first jurisdiction in Canada to do so.[7]
November
- 5 – The Supreme Court of the United States in Wainwright v. Stone finds that the sodomy law of Florida is not unconstitutionally vague, reversing a Fifth Circuit ruling.[8]
- 9 – The Kentucky Court of Appeals rules in Jones v. Callahan that two women were properly denied a marriage license despite the gender neutrality of the state's marriage statute.[9]
December
- 13 – Washington, D.C.'s Title 34 makes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation illegal.[10]
- 15 – The board of the American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the DSM-II. The resolution also urges an end to private and public discrimination and the repeal of laws discriminating against homosexuals.[11]
- 20 – The city council of New York City rejects a gay rights ordinance.[12]
- 21 – A United States federal judge issues a bulletin stating that the federal civil service may not terminate an employee based on sexual orientation alone.[13]
See also
- Timeline of LGBT history – timeline of events from 12,000 BCE to present
- LGBT rights by country or territory – current legal status around the world
- LGBT social movements