jack - //I wonder, Andy, if you would be quite so understanding were there to be a law making it an offence to be a balding music-journalist?
And then in your dotage it was understood that such a law had been pointless, pernicious and ill-thought out and, accordingly, some sort of recognition of this were offered to you to make amends. Where would you stand then? //
I am surprised at you - that analogy is ludicrous, and I think you know it.
Being a balding music journalist is never going to be seen as a crime against religion and morality in the way that homosexuality was.
But to return to the initial point -
I believe that if I had been a homosexual man convicted of the law at the time, I would think it morally and ethically wrong to my dying day, but I would not expect, or accept society deciding that it was wrong because we think it is wrong now.
I take responsibility for being a music journalist - my choice, the balding bit is not my choice, any more than being homosexual would have been - but I would still accept that the law viewed it as a criminal offence.
So I think your scenario is a serious stretch, but my position is consistent - I know that some laws are wrong, and that society changes them, but that does not mean they were not laws at the time.