i steal names from cartoon characters

(also, btw, the book links are to the Storygraph, which includes content warnings for each one!)

smth funny and lighthearted about a security robot who'd rather watch TV then do its job? all systems red by martha wells (first novella in the The Murderbot Diaries series, 6 books, ongoing)

a complex, intricate political space opera following a warship AI who's lost (almost) everything? ancillary justice by ann leckie (first in the Imperial Radch trilogy) (fun fact! bc of space linguistics reasons, all characters in this series are referred to with she/her pronouns, making gender a non-factor - it's really cool!)

a dark story about travelling between parallel universes and a woman who is dead in almost every single one? the space between worlds by micaiah johnson (standalone) (SO good, i don't get to recommend it often enough!!!)

a story about grief and letting go, and a unique take on alien invasion? the seep by chana porter (standalone novella)

hey, how abt some dystopian YA, for old times sake? specifically, one with sapphics and sick mechas? try gearbreakers by zoe hana mikuta (first in duology)

or, if you'd prefer something a bit less angsty, YA about a ragtag group of teens and a space heist? the disasters by m. k. england (standalone)

alternate history steampunk that blurs the line btwn science fiction and fantasy? the black god's drums by p. djeli clark (standalone, novella)

a dark gone girl-esque thriller about clones? the echo wife by sarah gailey (standalone)

poetic sapphic romance and time travel? this is how you lose the time war by max gladstone and amal el-mohtar (standalone)

a hopeful utopian future and a human-robot friendship? a psalm for the wild-built by becky chambers (novella, first out of two) (this author's got a whole bunch of hopepunk sci-fi novels in general, if that's smth you're looking for!)

africanfuturism, coming-of-age, and cool jellyfish aliens? binti by nnedi okorafor (novella, first in trilogy)

spicy lesbian cyborgs? and shall machines surrender my benjanun sriduangkaew (novella, first in the Machine Mandate series, 6 books)

cosmic horror with an autistic scientist, cyborg angels and AI gods? the outside by ada hoffmann (first in trilogy, 2 books are out)

also, if you're a fan of Janelle Monáe, may i draw your attention to the fact that they've recently come out with a Dirty Computer short story collection, each story co-written with a diff writer?

this list is long enough, but have some more authors (who are not cis men) also worth checking out: rivers solomon, yoon ha lee, charlie jane anders, aliette de bodard, xiran jay zhao, mary robinette kowal, corinne duyvis

Her and Grandpa were in a relationship with their best friends

The four of them have been in a relationship since they were teenagers

They flipped a bottle cap to see which girl the boys would marry

Their children could have either man as their biological father but their biological mother is the mum that raised them

“But Rue, where will these kids stay? Do you want them on the streets?”

of course not. In an ideal world, a kids would have multiple adults other than their parents they could look to for care, but I recognize that that will never be a reality for every single child. So: youth shelters, if they have nowhere else to go. There should be clean, warm shelters where anyone under 18 can stay for as long as they need, no questions asked. (And of course shelters that aren’t just for kids, but we’re talking about youth rights right now)

“But Rue,” I hear you say, “what if some moody teenager runs away after an argument?”

First of all, I’d rather a thousand moody teenagers run away than one abused child be trapped. Second, so what if one does? A kid needs time away from their parents, so they leave. The vast majority of them will get some time to cool down and then go back home, and if they don’t want to go back, period? Then nine times out of ten, they have a good reason. (Because yes, as hard as it is for you to believe, kids are humans who have common sense.)

“Okay, but what about the one time out of ten the kid doesn’t have a good reason?”

The dog robots are supposed to be autonomous, threehalves is explicitly only for being piloted by a human. The giant horns make it difficult for this machine to enter through doorways, and that is the point. Coupled with the built-in weak points, it is very easy to disable this thing, so it can't be used by the police or the military effectively.

Now, understand that yes you can have glasses! But glasses break. And they're expensive. So getting multiple pairs may not be feasible, and using an older prescription as a backup may result in not being able to do things you normally do (it may not correct your vision enough to drive, for example, or see clearly too far but is enough to see the ground). If your glasses break, you immediately become homebound unless somebody is free to escort you around until they're repaired or if you have a good enough backup pair.

For this exercise, assume you don't.

Now. Tell me how being fully reliant on an external device to be able to function in your daily life because your body simply doesn't work the way the "default" body does (for lack of a better term) is not a disability.

"Oh but contact!" Contacts can also become damaged or lost. Just like glasses.

"Corrective surgery!" The moment you start going "just have an expensive medical procedure to fix your issue" I think maybe you should consider you're talking about a disability maybe. Also, there are numerous things that can make procedures like that a bad idea for certain people (other medical conditons, unstable prescriptions, eyes too bad in certain ways, etc.) so not everybody is even able to go for it even if they could afford it.

Glasses cost money, contacts cost money, surgery costs money. Money other people don't have to spend

Glasses can break or get lost.

Not everyone can wear contacts (I couldn't for a decade because of a problem with my cornea), contacts can get lost as well, including IN the eye, needing removal by a doctor (it's rare but it happens, especially in people with dementia who might forget they had contacts in and/or don't feel them)

Surgery is highly invasive and not even all that successful, it has a high regret rate and causes many people issues short or long term.

And again: If you have to correct for something other people don't, it's a disability

I am not ABLE to see without aids. I am DISABLED. I can't drive a car without any kind of vision correction.

And even if you could have infinite glasses and/or contacts or surgery for free forever with no restrictions...

It still is requiring an external aid or a surgery in order to attain "normal" function.