You know, I never went beyond Baum's first Oz novel until I came across positive references to Ozma in Robert Heinlein's sci-fi writing toward the end of his career.

Heinlein was quite flawed as an artist, and some find him too offensively sexist to appreciate, but as a product of his time, he was rather more queer accepting than most.

(His original 'Stranger in a Strange Land' contained affirming passages about homosexuality his publisher made him cut. After Heinlein died, his wife arranged for his intended version of Stranger to be released. Not only was the novel now almost one quarter longer, the protagonist was bisexual. Quite a startling change!)

Anyway, I read the rest of the Oz novels at Heinlein's suggestion and I was blown away by how seemingly queer-subversive they are.

This made me question my presumption that Dorothy's quest must have been unintentional queer metaphor. I'm now not so sure Baum wasn't writing with queer intention.