Teletubby is secret gay, says evangelist

TINKY WINKY, the purple Teletubby who carries a red patent handbag in the children's BBC television show, was "outed" yesterday as a homosexual by National Liberty Journal, an American magazine edited by the Christian right-wing evangelist, the Rev Jerry Falwell.

In an article entitled "Parents Alert: Tinky Winky Comes Out of the Closet", the magazine issued a warning to parents in the United States to shield their children from the corrupting influence of the character, who lives in a dome with the other Teletubbies - Dipsy, La La and Po. With his boy's voice and ditsy demeanour, Tinky Winky is in fact a covert gay role model, the article said.

Steve Rice, spokesman forThe Itsy Bitsy Entertainment Company, which represents Teletubbies in the US, was emphatic: "To think we would be putting sexual innuendo in a children's show is kind of outlandish".

But the preacher's journal is convinced of the Tellytubby's orientation: "[Tinky Winky] is purple - the gay pride color, and his antenna is shaped like a triangle - the gay pride symbol."