In 1973, there were 15 recorded legal changes made affecting LGBT people. In the previous year, there were 27 changes made and 18 in the following year. A total of 203 legal changes were made in the 1970s.
- November 25Right to change legal gender becomes legal, but requires surgery.Gender reassignment surgeries are legal in Singapore, and in 1973 the government allowed patients to change their identity cards. This change implicitly recognized marriages that included an individual that had undergone surgery. In 1996, Member of Parliament (MP) Abdullah Tarmugi made an announcement that individuals who have undergone surgery could marry someone of the opposite sex.
- November 11Right to change legal gender becomes legal, but requires surgery.
- September 11Censorship of LGBT issues becomes state-enforced.Under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, LGBTIQ+ people in Chile faced brutal persecution and all remnants of advocacy were violently suppressed by the regime.
- June 27
- June 11Censorship of LGBT issues becomes fine as punishment.In 1973, Buenos Aires Province prohibited people from "dressing and pretending to be a person of the opposite sex in daily life" with a fine being issued to offenders. This law was used to criminalise trans people in practice.
- April 10Same-sex marriage becomes banned.Sub. §2.1. of Title 9 of the Domestic Relations Law defines marriage as “a civil contract between a male and female”.
- March
- January 29
- (date unknown)
- Censorship of LGBT issues becomes imprisonment as punishment.In 1973, President Hastings Banda implemented a reform to the Penal Code which added a clause to Section 180 against idle persons. The clause explicitly prohibited men from wearing long hair. While often viewed as a response to the growing hippy movement, the law has in practice also been used to persecute transgender women, who are denied legal gender recognition, who decide to grow their hair long to express their gender. The law would be repealed in 2011.
- January 1Same-sex marriage becomes banned.In 1973, Maryland became the first state in the United States to legally define a marriage as between a man and a woman and ban same-sex couples from marrying. However, there were cases of marriages outside the state being recognised.
- (date unknown)Homosexual activity becomes legal.In 1973, North Dakota repealed its sodomy laws, legalising homosexuality.
- January 1
- Same-sex marriage becomes varies by region.From January 1973 to June 2015, the legality of gay marriage in the United States varied by state. Maryland passed the first law banning marriages in 1973 with others following suit but not all. On November 18th, 2003, Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, and their ruling came into effect on May 17th, 2004. Massachusetts was the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. Between May 17th, 2004, and June 26th, 2015, when the United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, 37 states and the District of Columbia legalized same-sex marriage.
LGBT Organizations Founded in 1973
Lambda Legal
Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through…National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.