Rand definitely had more chemistry with Sulu but she was more like his fag hag.
Was that language really necessary? And you're conflating the actor with the character re Sulu.
I'm a fag and I've had plenty of hags over the years. I've never viewed the phrase negatively, more tongue in cheek - take a leaf out of Uhura's book or we'll never get there! Personally, I dunno if Sulu is straight or bi, it never came up, but his friendship with Rand was camp and cheeky. It would have been nice to see more of that in TOS.