The supposed intent behind them--to reduce or eliminate violent crime based on bigotry--is good, but you can't legislate that away. Harsher penalties probably don't do much to deter crime, regardless of the motivation.

As has already been mentioned, the only real result is that by framing it as a 'gay rights' victory politicians and advocacy groups get to pat themselves on the back without actually doing anything to equalize the legal rights of the minority group in question.

I'm not really sure what's a good idea.