Enter the Ninjas: Nate Meunier of queercore rap combo Ninja Death Squad talks about defusing homophohia with in-your-face lyrics. (music).

Ninja Death Squad write and sing anthems for today's disaffected youth, but don't expect to hear their song "Homophobes Gaybash in Order to Suppress Their Powerful Homosexual Tendencies" on MTV's Total Request Live anytime soon. The queercore Ninja duo of Andy Bennett and Nate Meunier intend their music, and its message, for a very specific audience.

"Andy and I are really strongly against fag-bashing and homophobia. We've had to deal with it a lot," says Meunier, the band's vocalist and drummer, who as a high school student in Vermont was routinely harassed for being bisexual. "We were the outcasts of our school, and I got attacked once by some skateboarder kids. It wasn't really bad, I just got shoved around and spit on," he recalls.

Hardly unique, Meunier's experience, unfortunately, mirrors the daily threats and assaults endured by gay, lesbian, and bisexual kids in schools across the country. "Vermont is pretty weird. There are a lot of queer-positive people, but there's a lot of homophobia," Meunier cautions. "I actually saw a bumper sticker that read `Vermonters spread shit, they don't pack it.' That's the kind of stuff I have to deal with on a daily basis."

Meunier's best defense in the face of such ignorance is his music. True to his band's name, Ninja Death Squad's songs are quick, lethal sonic assaults: Think early Beastie Boys, when Kate Schellenbach was still in the band, and you'll get the idea.

With such intense subject matter, the Ninjas try to keep their senses of humor, even hurling the insults flung at them back at their assailants. "We use the same [slum] like `fag' to show people how stupid they are when their minds are locked up," Meunier explains. Songs like "Army of Fag" and "If God Hates Fags (I Hate God)" are the Ninjas' way of draining their attackers of their venom.

With the release of their CD, Appreciate Our Art, on queercore indie label Heartcore Records, the now-21-year-old Meunier hopes his music will empower kids who face the same traumas he did. "Le Tigre played here recently, and it got me inspired," he says. "It helped spark my wanting to be on a queer-positive label and get our songs out there."

Find Ninja Death Squad's official site, and other related sites, at www.advocate.com

Gdula is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Washington Post.