Tinky Winky, one of four characters on the children's TV show ''Teletubbies,'' is gay and therefore a moral menace to American youth, the former Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell warns.

Writing in the February issue of his magazine, National Liberty Journal, Mr. Falwell said the creators of the program intended for Tinky Winky to be a gay role model.

''He is purple -- the gay-pride color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle -- the gay-pride symbol,'' he wrote. He also noted that Tinky Winky carries a purse-like bag.

The company that licenses Teletubbies in the United States, the Itsy Bitsy Entertainment Company, has denied that Tinky Winky was conceived as a gay role model and said the purse was a ''magic bag.''