By Joan Slonczewski. Part of the Elysium Cycle, this novel features an ocean world populated by women who have developed their society based on life sciences and sharing. The culture and biology of the world are well developed.

By Joanna Russ. The book intertwines the lives of four women who live in parallel worlds—when they meet it is their views on gender roles that startle one another.

By Samuel R. Delany. Also called Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia, this novel is about utopian society at war with our own Earth and explores gender roles and sexual expectations.

By Suzy McKee Charnas. Holdfast is a post-apocalyptic world with a community of white men who blame the disaster on women, liberals, and persons of color—most of whom are dead. There are a few white women left though, who are needed for breeding. Breeding for the men is a duty, not a pleasure.

By Raphael Carter. The narrator of this novel is a whale in a technological future society. There is no privacy, not even your own thoughts, and homosexuality is a crime.

By Ursula K. LeGuin. So what happens when humans are hermaphroditic until they're in heat? A classic of Sci Fi.

By Keith Hartman In this debut novel that crosses genres with a bit of wit and flair, society has fragmented (Wicca, Native, Baptist, etc.) and the gay gene has been found, and interestingly enough all young gays are Catholic. Features 11 narrators.

By Maureen F. McHugh. This award winning novel is set in a 22nd century that is dominated by Communist China. In a world where deviance is punished by exile to a Martian colony, the protagonist is gay.

By Brian Aldiss. This comedic novel asks the question: just what does it mean to be civilized? It features gay characters and gender-shifting aliens.

By Kim Stanley Robinson. Society has spread across the solar system. The society is nonbinary and gender and sexuality are thought of fluidly. In this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, present, and future.