As a "Johnny Come Lately" who only became more familiar with the Superman universe right before DEATH OF SUPERMAN, I didn't fully "get" that Maggie Sawyer was gay until one issue. I don't remember the exact issue, but I'm pretty sure it was an ACTION COMICS by Roger Stern and Jackson Guise (IIRC). Maggie wants to make sure her sexual orientation isn't the reason she's not getting a promotion. I figured at the time if she wasn't gay, she wouldn't mention the term "sexual orientation" even if she didn't go into specifics.
These pages are a good example of how many SPIDER-MAN comics, where the people in Peter Parker's life got their own storylines, influenced other comics. Clark Kent's friends and other people in Metropolis became important enough Post-Crisis to get 3 or 4 pages to themselves in each Superman comic.