Speculative Fiction by its very nature, lends itself to all manner of conjecture.  When creating fictional characters, gender is almost-always a fundamental characteristic that needs to be determined.  Some time ago, I found myself wondering why the majority of Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction writers out there seem to stick almost religiously to the standard male and female constructs.  This invariably led to the question of how much gender diversity already exists on our awesome planet.

I dare say the following list makes for some pretty imaginative characterization in works of Speculative Fiction:

Asexual
- having no sex or sexual organs.

Androgynous
- having an ambiguous sexual identity.

Hermaphrodite
- an individual in which reproductive organs of both sexes are present.

Psuedohermaphrodite
- an individual having internal reproductive organs of one sex and external sexual characteristics resembling those of the other sex or being ambiguous in nature.

Protandrous
- changing from the male sex to the female during the growth of the same individual.

Protogynous
- changing from the female sex to the male during the growth of the same individual.

Dichogamy

Dichogamy is the separation in time of gender expression in a hermaphroditic organism.
So basically, they change from one to the next. Protandry and Protogyny are types of Dichogamy – but more specific as the organism changes from one gender to the next and apparently stays that way.

*Note:
Scientifically, dichogamy really only applies to fish, gastropods, and most flowering plants but when it comes to to the infinite possibilities we can dream up, anything goes – right?