Reaching Out

For a couple of mid-20th century short stories with serious staying power and big recognition at the time, there's Delany's "Aye, and Gomorrah" and his ""We, in Some Strange Power’s Employ, Move on a Rigorous Line". I assume you've read them, but if not, my oversimplification would be that the first deals with sexual otherness as astronauts, and the second deals with class and modernization.