Why no hate crime?

None of the four defendants were found guilty of a hate crime. The jury’s decision surprised me. How could this not be a hate crime? One of the jurist explained that they thought the primary reason the defendants acted the way they did was because they were deceived. They thought Gwen had deliberately tricked the defendants into thinking he was a girl. And it was this deceit that they were reacting too not the fact that Gwen was transgender. Unfortunately, not a single time in the 2 trials, 16 weeks of testimony did a single transgender person take the witness stand. Would this have made a difference?