Unless there's romance options that we haven't heard about yet, they're all heterosexual. It's kind of disappointing to see them take a step back from the first game and Dragon Age, but what are you gonna do.
Anyway, Jordan was asking for it on Meebo, so here's a (reported) list of in-game bonuses for character imports:
Your Shepard will start at level 2 if your ME1 character was 40-49, level 3 if he/she was 51-59, and level 5 if he/she was 60.
10% bonus to Paragon or Renegade score from your corresponding score in ME1 (Note: I don't know whether you need to have fully maxed Paragon/Renegade to get this, or only the 75% achievements)
150,000 bonus starting credits if you had the Rich achievement on your save file.
10,000 bonus to each of the four minerals (Palladium, Iridium, Platinum, and Element Zero) if you've finished the collection sidequests in the first game.
That's all the gameplay-related stuff. Everything else relates to your character's actual choices.