Will of the Empress and lesbian stereotypes

I've been pondering different things about Will of the Empress, since it just came up on Goldenlake's book club, and I just finished listening to it as an audio book. I wasn't active in Pierce fandom when it was published (I'd pretty much dropped offline after getting a condo and my first dog), but I do remember making my way back to the Dancing Dove to see what other people thought of the book after I'd read it.

( spoilers, on the off chance anyone hasn't read it and is planning to. )