Speaking Varley (what? We were, weren’t we?) the short story “The Barbie Murders” involves a colony of people who all have themselves surgically altered to resemble Barbie, including the lack of primary sexual organs.
The kicker is that
a couple “deviant” folks get off by dressing up as sexual beings, including use of a merkin.
I love the way the Vorkosigan Saga plays with gender.
The gay-dude planet book is Ethan of Athos and it’s a stand-alone in the series. Athos considers women the root of all evil, and then poor Ethan gets sent into the rest of the solar system to discover that from everyone else’s perspective, he’s the odd one out. Bujold could have made Ethan’s terror of women into such a lame, gimmicky thing, but she didn’t take the easy way through. I thought it was absolutely stellar.
Oh, and a shout-out to Ancillary Justice, which I did not personally care for, but which did a lot of interesting things with gender, including having the protagonist (which was really one piece of a ship’s consciousness) be virtually unable to distinguish men from women, so all people were referred to as ‘‘she.’’ I think it was the civilization that made her that just used ‘‘she’’ as a universal pronoun. I didn’t read very far but I’m guessing the ship’s ancillary part became more human-like as time passed.
Just wanted to mention, of the Banks Culture novels, Excession is the one where gender switching is most central to the book. Also, some species-switching occurs but isn’t central.
Speaking of Varley, in his novel Steel Beach, the protagonist Hildy starts off as a man, but about half-way through decides to become a woman. I can’t remember if Varley explained the process, but I think the character brought up the change almost as an aside, leading me to think the change was trivial.
ETA: Nvmd, I see Steel Beach has already been mentioned. I didn’t realize it was part of his Eight Worlds series.
If you’re allowing fantasy, “The Marvelous Land of Oz” features a transgendered character (Ozma, as a baby girl, was transformed into Tip, a boy and at the end of the book is transformed back)
Also, another book by L. Frank Baum “John Dough and the Cherub” features an “incubator baby” named “Chick” who is either a boy AND a girl or neuter. The author was 100% ambiguous about Chick’s gender.
What I think is interesting is Jim Baen, the publisher was somewhere between a rock-ribbed conservative and a libertarian and referred to the book privately as “Planet of the Fags”, but allowed Bujold complete authorial freedom to publish it as she wanted–the only editing was the normal “Move this sentence here, add a paragraph there, don’t forget the semi-colon in the other place” stuff. No content interference. So…despite the crude title he used, he had the decency to publish it untouched.
I don’t know if Mr. Robot counts as SF, but one of the Chinese characters (played by BD Wong) plats a transgendered woman. Had the sex change by usual modern means though. But she’ll dress as a man or a woman depending on what her “game” is.
While you are correct, having just read the series and the collection of short stories called “Budayeen Nights” it seems to me like the transgender characters were predominantly lower class. For instance, none of the city officials, police, or leaders in the criminal organizations that form the “real” government are transgender.
I don’t know if Steven Universe counts, but Steven and his girlfriend Connie fuse (using Steven’s mom’s crystal gem) to become one female entity Stevonnie.
I didn’t know that, jayjay. I’d like to see it. Certainly, Swinton is the most epicene actor I can think of – I believe that had she been a little younger she’d have been better cast than Redmayne for The Danish Girl. Thanks for the head’s-up about the movie.
I’m not sure. Technically not, I think. In your own link, it says that Stevonnie’s gender is never explicitly stated, or even implied, and that gender neutral pronouns (they/them) are used canonically.
However, it might fit within the spirit of the OP as it is a good example of a character with a non heteronormative gender identity.
You’re right the Wiki is keeping the gender fairly neutral. Though there’s some caveats:
Stevonnie is drawn very typically female.
Characters react to the Fusion as female.
All known Crystal Gems are female.