My project examines the black queer male adolescent in 1980s black gay male literature. Just as the 1979 establishment of the DC (now National) Coalition for Black Lesbians and Gays and the first black pride parade signaled the growing social and political presence of black LGBT communities, the surge during the 1980s in the publication of black gay male literature was an equally significant event. By analyzing how this period’s coming of age texts depict the transition between adolescence and manhood, a transition that I call becoming, I argue that the black queer male adolescent as a character as well as black queer male adolescence-as-an-idea provide neglected insight into black identity in a postmodern milieu. I suggest that in the process of “becoming” a black man, black queer male adolescents react to the dominant (social and literary) narratives of black masculine formation by exhibiting racial allegiance even as they create physical and ontological spaces within black communities that foster queer self-expression. My research builds on literary scholar Tremiko Melancon’s discussion of black sexuality and transgression. Where she focused on the experiences of black women, I examine black queer male adolescence through the lens of transgressive behavior. I maintain that when the black queer male adolescent’s confronts dominant masculine narratives, he produces transgressive performances of black maleness that marks him as a postmodern subject.