Thinking about female characters

This showed up on my twitter and it got me thinking.

I don't write a lot of women. There's not much room for them in the gay romance genre.
But I do include some.

In Curse of the Pharaoh's Manicurists (and other books in the series) I have 4 standard women, and other guest stars. Sarah Brown is a Mako Mori. She has her own narrative arc, although our narrator only catches glimpses of it. She is the primary adversary.  General Elizabeth has lines, but she is strictly support. Janine and Olivia, the housemaids, are silent and efficient, as good Edwardian maids should be. Safi and Josette could be replaced with sexy lamps. Rishima could be problematic, as a dayaan, an Indian witch, but she and Charlie talk and exchange magic, and their relationship not one-sided. She stands in as a magical mentor while he's away from Dr. Walker.

In the Eight Thrones... Tanis is the only woman in the Group and she fails the Strength is Relative. She would much prefer to be one of the boys and acts as if she is. As we visit Rome, we encounter Benta, Padma, Akino and others, all of whom have their own arcs, some of which we see. We failed the Anti-Freeze by killing Charlotte in the first book. Betraying her to her death was part of a test of Nick's commitment to the group.

In the DJ books, we pass the Bechdel, she is her own arc, she is not sexy and cannot be replaced with a lamp, but she is regularly injured in her line of work (Way too many of my cases ended with the words "You're lucky to be alive.")  But again, she is furthering her own story. And she is a hard-drinking, tough PI in the Sam Spade mold. She lives like a stereotype and is quite aware of it, thank you. She does these things by her choice.  This is a series I have done some worrying about. If I represent the demographics of Memphis, am I falling into the Magical Negro trap? (DeMarco hurls a mean fireball) If I don't give magic to characters of color, am I making a point or just being careless? I opted to have them use magic, but have their own ends and only reluctantly (sometimes with bribes, like the pixies) help DJ.

In Hard Reboot, for most of the book, Caitlin could be replaced by a sexy lamp. She is an object the men are squabbling over. (almost literally, after being brainwashed) She is a project. Sean has to rewire the pretty lamp, and when he does, she becomes a person again. Zara...is a mess. She may have her own arc, but all we see of her is in her interactions with men.