People need more of an incentive to not do anything bad to gays. If the punishment is the same as anything else, nobody would care. But if you make the punishment for specifically targeting gays more severe, people would think twice before doing anything.
The current punishment for hate crimes against gays is a minimum 4 to 10 years in prison. The minimum penalty should be raised to 7 to 15 years in prison depending on the severity of the case as well as the possibility of life imprisonment if the case calls for it.