The major comic book companies were not only extremely tardy in representing gays in comics, they were relatively slow in representing other racial and ethnic individuals or groups in comics. And, given the era back then, they were relatively sexist and perhaps didn't often realize that they were.
Marvel introduced the Black Panther in the 60's, and DC followed along. Even the Legion would have an African-American member late in the decade.
Ironically, within the Legion there was already a green legionnaire (Brainiac 5), an orange legionnaire (Chameleon Boy), and eventually a blue legionnaire (Shadow Lass). While the Legion had a girl from the beginning (Saturn Girl), she was immediately outnumbered by the boys, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy and, very quickly, Super Boy was asked to join the team.* Eventually, there would be Triplicate Girl, Shrinking Violet, Phantom Girl, and Light Lass; but there was correspondingly also Sun Boy, Invisible Kid, Colossal Boy, Star Boy, Bouncing Boy, Element Lad, and Mon-El in the earliest Legion after they were a regular feature in Adventure Comics from #300 forward.
So the ratio of male to female team members was always a bit unbalanced toward the male teammates. (They did try to recruit Supergirl in the third Legion tale in Action Comics #267, but red kryptonite aged her appearance and the Legion had an age restriction: if you were over 18--or apparently if you only temporarily looked over 18--you could not join this teen-aged team.)
In a nod toward future equality of the membership regarding gender, however, the rules were changed so that while previously the team constitution only allowed adding one new member a year, it now allowed one new boy and one new girl per year. Supergirl obviously beat out Shrinking Violet in Action Comics #276. (Sun Boy and Bouncing Boy were shown as the two boys who were attempting to join the Legion, along with Brainiac 5--though, as I mention in the footnote below, a green-skinned boy was depicted as already in the Legion when Superboy joined earlier--though I am now told that this was a change made during the reprints and not when the original comic was created. Regardless, continuity was often hit and miss in early comics; and the editorial, writing, and artistic staffs weren't particularly diligent in keeping errors such as these to a minimum.)
The writer and editor got themselves into hot water with many fans (especially female readers) with Adventure Comics #309 by having Brainiac 5 say, "We'll draw lots for the job...excluding Saturn Girl. Because it's too risky a mission for a girl!" They were forced to rectify this sexist mistake by AC #319 when Brainiac 5 says, "...But...it's too dangerous for a girl! I must eliminate you, Saturn Girl." She indignantly replies, "I was selected by fair chance and I claim my right to go."
When I got around to creating my own adult team, the Rainbow Arc of Fire, it formed slowly. First with Greg, then with Paul as the initial two members--a duo rather than a team, really. Eventually, William and Joseph and Marina and Joan were added. So the gender imbalance between male and female members would continue, just as it had with the Legion. Soon, Dino and Michael and Cleo and Jane joined. Parity was finally achieved with the addition of Liquide and Mercuria (though Liquide has her own unique quality that makes full equality rather tricky).
I also handled ethnicity similarly (though not with a green, orange, or blue-skinned member). Joan and Greg were Hispanic, or at least had some Hispanic heritage in their background, though this was not emphasized (the Legion could get away with alien and alien-skinned members in the early and mid-60's--but those comics would have had a tough time selling in certain parts of the country then if their "unique" members were depicted as black or Hispanic or Asian instead of orange, green, or blue). But for RAoF it would not be until Liquide and Mercuria joined the Rainbow Arc of Fire that there would be teammates who appeared to be a woman with Asian features or one with African-American features--though, again, each had her own unique qualities that were done to emphasize the ethnic imbalances that had existed in the early and mid-60's.
Did DC deliberately try to have an ethnically diverse Legion by making them differently (though alien) colored even if they knew they would not be able to have African-American or Hispanic or Asian legionnaires until much later in the decade? I don't know for certain, but it seems possible. Did the staff give Element Lad an obviously pink and white uniform and later show him as still single when he was an adult legionnaire because someone along the line wanted to hint toward him possibly being gay? I seriously doubt that, but I suppose some readers could fantasize that he might be gay--and at least the possibility remained to make him so. In the 2000's, for one Legion (there have been several over the years), Invisible Kid obviously had feelings for Brainiac 5; but that was undone by a new Legion which appeared more recently when that other Legion was shelved.
* An interior scene of the early Legion clubhouse did show the backs of heads of four more legionnaires, three of whom were girls; but we were not shown whom they were. A later panel in the first Legion comic also showed an unidentifiable young man in the foreground and another who could only have been a green-skinned Brainiac 5 along with a second unidentifiable boy member standing behind Brainiac 5.
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