I think reading her as lesbian was just the knee-jerk reaction of 1980's teenagers aged 18 in suburban Germany - there was no LGBT queer terminology available to them, to us, and the type of deviance that Amelia lives and embodies... well it's peculiar how that would have been read as "so outsidery she's gotta be lesbian, right?!" But that's how a lot of the kids reacted, and they must've gotten that idea from home: that a woman who doesn't conform, who is "other", has to be, well, "that". I'm glad times have changed.

I'd suggest some Flannery O'Connor, but oh my she IS bleak. :)