Actually - I don't see a need for any sort of hate crime legislation. A crime is a crime, regardless of who commits it against whom. If a heterosexual kills a homosexual, for whatever reason, it's murder - same as if a homosexual kills a heterosexual. To pile on additional punishment because the the crime is committed against someone because of their ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion, or anything simply gives that class more status than the person who committed the crime. In other words, to say that a heterosexual should have more jail time for killing a homosexual, than he or she would for killing another heterosexual is simply wrong.
As far as it turning into a thought crime issue, it's already happening in Europe. A Swedish pastor served jail time for preaching against homosexuality. Canada is in the process of adopting similar laws, if they haven't done so already. It's not far down the road for the US.
I agree with pretty much all of your first paragraph. I don't see why someone beating another person with a tire iron while screaming "dirty n-----!" should get a more severe penalty than someone beating another person with a tire iron "merely" because of marital infidelity or a bad debt or whatever.
What I was objecting to was the hyperbolic claims in the original post, such as the idea that this legislation is particularly aimed at Christians, or that it would outlaw public Bible readings.