They are status crimes. A certain status(i.e. Sodomites) receive extra protection. The same preacher you are talking about would not be charged for preaching against a straight White Male father of two.
Look, I know what you are saying. I can see both descriptions of these laws being true. I can see how they can be viewed as ‘hate crimes’, ‘thought crimes’ and government-defined protected class laws. I think people label them as different things depending on their attack strategy opposing them.
Bottom line, no matter how you label and perceive them, in the end they are unconstitutional as they violate the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, and create classes of government-defined people that are ‘more equal’ than others.