Ah, I completely misread your comment. I thought you were aware that Joan Watson was a woman and saying the relationship only worked as intended because they were not both men. But I think the queer version would be two clearly homosexual men having relationships with other men, just not each other.

it does make me wonder if that's the reason why the romance was not progressed in elementary, though - because everyone knows the characters were originally both men.

Or two women, etc.