Moreover, being homosexual was never illegal in the first place; it was sodomy laws that made gay sex (and, in many cases, any non-vaginal sex by anyone) a crime.
These laws were used as tools to specifically target gay people, but I make the distinction because gay speech, the issue in Russia right now, has always been protected by the first amendment.
Interestingly, Justice O'Connor filed an opinion concurring in judgement in Lawrence where she would have only struck down laws that singled out same-sex conduct, allowing laws to remain on the books if they included opposite-sex conduct too.
These laws were used as tools to specifically target gay people, but I make the distinction because gay speech, the issue in Russia right now, has always been protected by the first amendment.