I've seen this mentioned a lot online and even in at least one show. The lead in the original novel was gay, turned into a male love interest to Holly in the film adaptation.

I don't get it. I read the original novela years ago. I understand queer coding and early 20th century queer coding. Still, nothing struck me as gay coded or explictly gay about the MC.

Holly herself is explictly bisexual at that. And "Fred" writes a novel about a lesbian romance... is that where the queer coding comes in? He knows about queerness = he isn't into Holly = Fred is gay?