The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman and founder of Traditional Values Coalition, said yesterday that public and private relief agencies providing assistance to the survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks should not give aid to surviving members of gay partnerships.

Groups such as the Red Cross "should be first giving priority to those widows who were at home with their babies and those widowers who lost their wives," Sheldon said. Assistance "should be given on the basis and priority of one man and one woman in a marital relationship."

Ralph Neas, president of the liberal People for the American Way, denounced Sheldon's statements as "cruel and reprehensible."

The conservative leader said that gay rights organizations are seeking to capitalize on the crisis.

"They are taking advantage of this national tragedy to promote their agenda," Sheldon said.

Sheldon said he was prompted to make his comments by reports of distribution of aid to gay partners and by the advocacy of such assistance by gay groups such as Empire State Pride Agenda.

"There is no question that groups like the Empire State Pride Agenda would very much like to redefine what marriage is and how marriage functions and who enters into marriage," Sheldon said.

Two other prominent Christian Right leaders, evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, provoked controversy when they suggested the United States may have brought the terrorist attacks on itself because of the activities of gays, feminists and civil libertarians.

Falwell later apologized.