ROANOKE, Va. (AP) -- Is Tinky Winky gay?
Under a headline that reads "Parents Alert: Tinky Winky Comes Out of the Closet," an article in the February edition of the National Liberty Journal notes that Tinky Winky has the voice of a boy yet carries a purse."He is purple -- the gay-pride color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle -- the gay-pride symbol," the story said. The paper is edited and published by Falwell.
Falwell contends the "subtle depictions" are intentional and in a statement issued Tuesday said, "As a Christian, I feel that role modeling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children."
A spokesman for Itsy Bitsy Entertainment Co., which licenses the Teletubbies in the United States, said that what Falwell's newspaper described as a purse is actually Tinky Winky's magic bag.
"The fact that he carries a magic bag doesn't make him gay," Steve Rice said. "It's a children's show, folks. To think we would be putting sexual innuendo in a children's show is kind of outlandish."
The British show aimed at toddlers began airing on U.S. public television stations last spring and is now as popular as Barney, a singing dinosaur who also happens to be purple.
The Teletubbies are portrayed by actors in oversized, brightly colored costumes. They all have television screens on their tummies and, according to the story line, live in a superdome hidden in the hills.
Rice said Falwell was attacking "something sweet and innocent" to further his conservative political agenda. "To out a Teletubby in a preschool show is kind of sad on his part. I really find it absurd and kind of offensive," he said.
Falwell's spokeswoman, Laura Swickard, said the founder of the now-defunct Moral Majority agreed with everything that was in the NLJ article and would not comment beyond his one-paragraph statement.