The fact that the attackers were screaming anti-gay slurs may push it into hate crime territory.

15 years ago me and some friends were attacked in Balboa Park by people calling us "faggots" and the like. Even though none of us were gay. The police still investigated it as a hate crime though. And a couple years ago here in SD, a couple people were tried and convicted on assualt with special circumstances (hate crime) for attacking someone they thought was gay (and wasn't)