Writing people rather than genders was certainly quite a breakthrough for me.

One story I did that I got a lot of positive feedback for and hope to try and get published was a romance where the two characters involved were women (Doctor Who featured in the story too, natch)... I wrote people and did not draw unnecessary attention to the sexuality of the characters. I'm quite proud of it, really. And just for the extra challenge it was told in the first person too. :)