My gay protagonist in affecting my career.

Hello, I’m an author looking for a place to vent. I’m sure a lot of you would rather not read my rant, but I can’t think of where else to turn to right now. I have three published books that I sold on my own to small presses. I’ve been looking for an agent recently and a publisher for my latest manuscript, unfortunately the first response I get after querying someone is excitement, until I send them more details about the book and they realize my protagonist is gay and there is a central gay romance. I really do think this issue has a lot to do with the book being categorized as sci-fi. I’m considering gutting the book and making the characters straight, or keeping their sexuality under wraps. It has been very explicitly stated to me that because of the bold, unblinking look at the protagonist's sexuality, I will not get this book sold anytime soon.

Now, I don’t see a lot of gays in sci-fi, so I figure, what do I know? Maybe these people are right and publishers don’t want to take on a project that will alienate some readers. I’ve tried reaching out to gay friendly publishers, but because the story is not specifically themed toward dealing with homosexual issues, and there are prominent straight characters as well, there seems to be no interest.

My last attempt will be Baen. I’ve seen gay sci-fi characters in their books. After that I think I’m giving up on the manuscript as it is. I’d love to see the book published with gay characters, but I’d love to successfully further my career more.