The Reverend Jerry Falwell became a laughingstock after he identified the "Teletubbies" character named "Tinky Winky" as a homosexual role model who may attract preschoolers to the gay lifestyle. Falwell noted the presence of a purple triangle-shaped antenna on Tinky Winky's head, the same shape and color as the gay pride symbol, and the fact that the boy-voiced character carried a purse. Producers reponded that the gay-pride color is actually pink, and that the "purse" is actually Tinky Winky's magic bag.

The episode prompted the following letter to the Boston Globe, February 17, 1999:

All this discussion over whether Tinky Winky... is gay misses a crucial point in that critics are confusing gender role behavior with sexual orientation.

Tinky Winky, a presumably male character who totes a patent-leather handbag, transcends current social constructions of gender behavior and, therefore, serves as a positive role model for all children.

If there were more characters like Tinky Winky, we would see less ridicule and harassment of young people who behave differently from the expected gender norm while also expanding the behavioral options of people of all sexual and gender identities.

—Warren J. Blumenfeld
Northampton

The same point was echoed in an article, by University of Massachusetts-Amherst communications professors Lisa Henderson and Justin Lewis, in the "Focus" section of the Boston Sunday Globe, February 21, 1999:

If Falwell's outrage seems comic, it is also a measure of the rigidity of gender roles in the ersatz world of children's toys and TV. Even the generally benign "Sesame Street" gives most of its roles to male characters, with a supporting cast of generally prettified and one-dimensional females.

As extraordinary as it may seem, by giving Tinky Winky a handbag, Teletubbies has crossed one of television's most rigid boundaries....

Whether [Falwell] likes it or not, there are lots of children (and adults) who don't conform to a rigid imposition of gender difference. And these people, kids especially, have precious few opportunities to identify with popular characters.

Kids understand gender play. They try out new things all the time, and perhaps the place of adults is to protect their efforts, not police them....

Defensive responses to Falwell's attacks will no doubt insist that he is mistaken in his reading, and that surely there are more pressing issues to raise on behalf of children. But a kinder response might be to acknowledge that, yes, that's Tinky Winky, and lucky for our children that the Teletubbies' creators have included Tinky Winky's way of being in the world....

[Ed.: Interestingly, Falwell was not the first to 'out' Tinky Winky, since he was apparently relying on existing speculation among many in the gay community, a level of discourse for which he has a tin ear. The degree to which Winky was already considered a gay icon became apparent when the actor who plays Winky was arrested for public nudity, leading the British gay community to rally to save his job. The Washington Post had earlier identified Winky as the "Gay Teletubby" in its annual In/Out list, and backpacks featuring the character have been a notable gay fashion statement in Britain.

Some parents have also denounced the Teletubbies for talking in high voices in an alien language, which they say may encourage baby talk, and for sporting television screens on their bellies, which they say may encourage too much television viewing. Some have become disturbed at the trend among older British children and young adults to throw parties at which they watch the show only after ingesting significant quantities of hallucinogenic drugs.]

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