Genre is visible (e.g. western, horror, etc).
Do not think in terms of genre. Focus on the story, and then choose an appropriate genre. Animal Farm is not thought of as a children’s story. Nor is 1984 thought of as science fiction.
Rod Serling wanted to write about issues that were somewhat censored. He chose his genre to get the messages across uncensored.
Make your story universal. Ask whether the story has value if it were not set in your genre. Does it require the genre to be meaningful? If so, it may be a weak story.
However, picking a genre is important from the perspective of marketing, etc.