Beth is a larger-than-life lesbian activist from the Deep South. During childhood, she recalls being so poor she had to eat squirrels. But now, her punk band, Gossip, is on the verge of completing a rags-to-riches journey to the dizzy heights of global stardom.

In recent days, Beth has been compared to Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin and Debbie Harry. The New Musical Express describes her as a future "rock goddess". Noel Gallagher reckons she's "fookin' immense". At the age of 25, she's just signed a major record deal, and is about to become very, very famous.

"Beth has got a voice that's just absolutely phenomenal, " says Krissi Murison, the deputy editor of NME. "It's amazing.

She has the sound of a soul or gospel singer, which the Gossip throws over the top of a funky punk soundtrack. Everyone I know who's heard them has been blown away."

High praise indeed. Yet Ditto's appeal extends far beyond the "riot-disco" sound, cutting a swathe through the indie club scene of Britain and the United States. On both sides of the Atlantic, her brand of outspoken feminism and outlandish fashion sense creates almost as many headlines as her music.

"The refreshing thing about Beth is that she actually stands for something, " adds Murison. "She's one of the first really talented lesbian musicians we've seen for some time. In both her clothes and her music, she's pulling down stereotypes about what lesbian women should look like, and stand for."

Despite her size (at little over five feet, she weighs 15 stone), Ditto is also a style icon. "She's glamorous and sexy, and is obsessed by clothes. The queer politics, as she puts it, is also a big thing for her, and she's not afraid to stand up and shout about it."

Success has arrived at a gallop for the Gossip. Just over a year ago, they were a little-known punk band whose albums had achieved critical acclaim, but had limited commercial success beyond the indie clubs of Portland, Oregon, where the band had been based since 1999.

Then they released 'Standing in the Way of Control', a slow-burning hit that inspired Sony to snap them up. They were swiftly tipped for greater things and invited to spend the summer touring with the poly-sexual disco troupe Scissor Sisters. It wasn't long before Ditto made her first appearance on MTV. A few weeks later, Jonathan Ross invited the Gossip on to his chat show, to perform the title track of their third album, an attack on Republican opposition to gay marriage.

Then, on Tuesday, Ditto was chosen by NME as number one on its annual 'Cool List' of zeitgeist-catching musicians, providing a blow for female equality as one of five women in the top 10.

"This year's Cool List is a testament to the raft of hugely talented women who have taken hold of music in 2006, " said editor Conor McNicholas. "From Beth to Lily (Allen) and Karen (O, from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), they've brought new energy to a scene dominated by men. They're also living proof you can still rock a crowd wearing stilettos."

It was, to such a violently committed feminist, the most fitting of accolades.

The Beth Ditto story begins in rural Arkansas. She grew up in Searcy, a small Bible Belt town said to have inspired Footloose. Although she talks fondly of her childhood, and has a tattoo that reads "Mama", Ditto admits it was an uncomfortable environment in which to come to terms with her sexuality.

"Being feminist and queer came out of my pores, " she has recalled. "As a kid, I was always mad. Just noticing the women at Thanksgiving, running around the kitchen while the men were watching football. I was like, f**k this! I would get crushes on my best friends, and get so mad at them for getting boyfriends.

I really wanted it to go away!"

It was also, she often reminds interviewers, a childhood of grinding poverty. Hence the well-worn anecdote about eating squirrels. "My mom hated us doing it, but all the kids we knew ate squirrels, " she has said. "I remember this one time, I was 13 and had been smoking pot with my cousin for the first time.

"He got the munchies so bad he took out his BB gun and started shooting at them, and then he just skinned them, fried them, and ate them like chicken. We used to play with the tails afterwards."

When she was 17, Ditto met her bandmates Nathan Howdeswell and Kathy Mendonca (since replaced by Hannah Blilie). They soon moved to Olympia, a liberal town in Washington State.

"When I met those kids, it changed my life. I was a weirdo, a baby dyke, with short hair and big baggy pants. I shaved my body in all kinds of ways, wear tons of eyeliner and dye my hair pink."

"I was 18, and I decided to move to Olympia, and one of the reasons I stayed was that here was a community of people who think that I'm great. Not just hot, but awesome! I never knew that, I never thought about that."

The group's first album, That's Not What I Heard, was released in 2000, and helped the band to build a strong following on the underground indie scene. However, it failed to break through to a wider audience. The band released a further four albums on small labels. All were critically acclaimed, but failed to achieve chart success. "To be honest, the Gossip have been going for years, but it's taken them an awfully long time to get the recognition they deserve, " says Sarah Jane, music editor of lesbian magazine Diva.

"They've got the potential to be up there with the White Stripes.

But like many lesbian bands, they've never had exposure or money put into them, so have always stayed underground.

"Finally, though, they seem to have got the success they deserve with 'Standing in the Way of Control'. It would be easy to dismiss them as one-hit wonders if the next one doesn't do as well, but I think they've got a handful of great garage albums in them. They've got potential to be as big as The Killers, and their songs are much leaner and catchier."

Ditto and the other members of the three-piece . . . Howdeswell plays guitar, Blilie drums . . . are currently in the studio, recording a follow-up, which is expected to finally register as a chart success.

Their spokesman points out that until now, none of their tracks have even been admitted to BBC Radio 1's playlist. "I think they're now questioning that decision. It's fair to say their first two albums were a pure punk sound, but this has a much wider appeal.

"It's got a more gospelly sound, as they don't have a bassist, it isn't too different to the early White Stripes. The song-writing has become much stronger, and the band also has much more of an idea about what they're meant to be doing. The producers they are now working with have been more able to refine their ideas."

In the months to come, Ditto's upward trajectory won't be harmed by her outspoken manner, which . . . though sometimes controversial . . . has her feted as a future lesbian icon. She recently generated hostile headlines by saying the rash of school shootings in the US was no surprise because depressed teenagers didn't get the help they needed.

"I think Beth Ditto is a fantastic role model, not just for lesbians, but for all women, " adds Jane. "She's honest, intelligent, witty, outspoken, fiery, and incredibly charismatic. She's also a self-confessed fat-femme who is proud of who she is. In a music industry populated by thin, airbrushed singers, that's refreshing."

Ditto's interest in fashion, and growing status as a style icon, is about to be cemented with a book, So Crazy. "It's a style guide, " she says. "All the usual fashion don'ts will be fashion dos. Like horizontal stripes on big bodies, and chin-length hair. Fat people look fab in Miu Miu. They just do."

Other fans are taken by Ditto's energetic presence on stage, which frequently sees her strip down to her underwear.

"They're such an active band. She dances and throws herself into the audience, and it's hot work, " adds Murison. "At a gig in London, Ditto mooned the audience and then turned around and frontmooned them."

"She's not just behaving like this to shock, though. It's part of her view that the world's just a bit shit, and you've got to do something to put a smile on people's faces. But she's certainly not shy."

Having just been declared the coolest person on the planet, it's easy to understand why.

A Sapphic songbook:

the sex lives of femme fatales Madonna Never a card-carrying lesbian, her forays into bisexuality have been salivated over by the media.

In the video for 'Justify My Love', Madonna kisses Amanda Cazalet. Her Erotica and Sex period was full of references, and she famously kissed Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears at MTV's Video Music Awards. She's also said to have had a relationship with the American comedian Sandra Bernhard.

Alex Parks The most credible winner of a musical talent show, she is also gay. With boyish clothing and spiky hair, she impressed Fame Academy judges and viewers, who bought 500,000 copies of her first album, Introduction.

Dusty Springfield Springfield was famously tortured about her private life. She opened up once, to the London Evening Standard: "A lot of people say I'm bent, and I've heard it so many times I've almost learnt to accept it. I'm as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy." She was never again so candid, but biographies have confirmed she had lesbian relationships.

Joan Armatrading Britain's first truly successful black artist has never made much of her lesbianism, but her hit single, 'The Weakness in Me', is now widely considered a gay anthem.

Katie O The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' singer . . . and the NME's fifth coolest person in the world . . . is nothing if not provocative. Although not out of the closet, she has peered around the door. In an interview with 'The Advocate', she said the song, 'Mystery Girl' wasn't written about anyone in particular, but "when I first started writing songs, the subject would be a girl". She added: "All of my sex dreams are of a homoerotic nature."

kd lang Initials uncapitalised in homage to the Modernist poet ee cummings, kd lang came out as a lesbian in 1992. She embraced her new liberty, becoming a champion of gay causes.