Why isn't rape a hate crime?

I don't think saying rape should be treated a hate crime makes sense. If all rape is a hate crime what difference does that make? Or are you suggesting rape of men or boys is rape but if the victim is female it is aggravated as a hate crime?

The application of aggravating circumstances to turn a crime into a hate crime can be used in different types of crime.

For example graffiti on its own is a crime but spraying racist slogans is an aggravated crime. Assault is a crime but picking your victim because they are a different race from you is an aggravated crime. Vandalism is a crime but vandalising your neighbour's house because he or she is a different religion is an aggravated crime.

For the concept of hate crime to apply to rape it would be necessary to have some form of the crime of rape which could be committed without aggravating circumstances. How would that work?

If you are talking about stiffer sentences all round , fair enough, or a recognition that rape has other motivations than sexual, fair enough, but a blanket statement that all rape is a hate crime is meaningless.

Probably because it mostly happens to women, and women don't count for shit.

Rape is a hate crime and should be treated as such. Where is the on line petition about this or the letters to the MPs?

'Anyone of any religion, race or sexual orientation can be beaten or raped also, what makes it a hate crime is that they have been targeted because of one of the signifiers above. '

You're right. People of colour used to be expected to put up with racist name calling as just being the way of the world, a bit of banter, all that nonsense. No reasonable person thinks that way now. And yet, sexist language and behaviour are taken nowhere near as seriously as racist language and behaviour. We have a very long way to go. If sexist crimes were treated as hate crimes, it might mean that over time, these behaviours were taken a lot more seriously by the general population

Although, I suppose you would have to demonstrate that the rapist hated women as a class and not just their individual female victim.

Men can be raped as well but, tbf, that's not the point. Anyone of any religion, race or sexual orientation can be beaten or raped also, what makes it a hate crime is that they have been targeted because of one of the signifiers above. When men rape women the individual assaulted has been targetted for their gender, so it should also, in my view, be a hate crime.

Men can be raped as well.

I agree with you, and I would include sexual harassment, sexual assault and sexist abuse online as hate crimes as well.

Although of course, men can be victims of all of the above. Would they only count as hate crimes if committed against women?

In my opinion, it is because it can be put in a far more severe bracket of assault, actual bodily harm etc, which would attract much more severe sentencing. Although, that is, as I said, only my opinion, and possibly wishful thinking.