Like the Kennedy School committee which called for a more tolerant environment, Steedly says she hopes that "recruitment" can be done by examining attitudes at the university rather than by initiating affirmative action hiring.

"It would be ideal to say we don't need a search because we have already hired them," says Steedly.

And Steedly, a recent addition to FAS, says any type of search process itself would prove difficult to carry out. "A search requiring people to identify their sexual orientation is not a positive step," she says.

Massachusetts anti-discrimination laws prevent universities, like any employer, from requiring applicants to state their sexual orientation. These laws, say some scholars, also create barriers to effective recruitment in this area.

With such guidelines, a university can only recruit those gay and lesbian professors who have publicly declared their sexual orientation. At those handful of schools that may someday begin to recruit gay and lesbian professors, being "out" may become advantageous. But, say students and scholars alike, where higher levels of discrimination exist, such openness can be very risky.

'More Open, More Public'

"What seems to me to be most crucial is the establishment of a more open community and more public awareness and visibility of people who are gay or lesbian," says Steedly. "The tolerance seems to be running behind the visibility, and that seems to be the first step to take."

It is a tolerance that will not come easily to Harvard. Even with broad support for "diversity," gays and lesbians are still fighting for the public legitimacy that would guarantee them a place alongside other minority groups.

Thomson Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield Jr., one of the nation's most outspoken opponents of affirmative action for Black and women scholars, says he stands stongly against recruitment of gay or lesbian professors.

"I would be quite opposed to any deliberate recruitment. I don't think that constitutes a point of view or a scholarly specialty," says Mansfield. "It's a misfortune to be gay or lesbian--it is not a basis of a claim to representation at a University."

But Mansfield says that gay and lesbian recruitment could very well make its way to Harvard with "the increasing politicization of the University."

"Many bad things are happening," says Mansfield. "Things could easily proceed that far, but I would hope that at some point common sense would intervene."

For university administrators, the question of gay and lesbian faculty recruitment is not a moral issue, but a legal one. The federal government does not protect gays or lesbians from discrimination nor does it include them in affirmative action reports.

"The fact is that the University would push to enforce all of the legal issues that prevent exclusion from employment," says Ronald Quincy, assistant to the president for affirmative action. "But the federal government does not consider gays or lesbians a minority or subject to affirmative action goals."

Quincy says debates about gay and lesbian faculty recruitment are increasingly becoming a national trend. "I would predict for there to be more efforts by advocacy groups for greater diversity on college campuses, including gay and lesbian faculty," Quincy says.