"There's a lot of opportunity available and there's a great deal of tolerance on campus," he says. "But in terms of administrative outreach to students or a feeling of really being welcomed by the administration, I think a lot of other schools beat us in that area."

Kathleen M. Douglas '99, a member of BGLTSA and publicity chair for Girl Spot, also said Harvard would likely be seen as friendly to non-heterosexual students.

"I think Harvard should do very well. Cambridge is a very liberal area and as a result it's a very gay area," she says. "Harvard has a pretty big gay community and it's pretty loud and prominent...in general I think most people here are pretty accepting."

But Velma M. McEwen '00, co-chair of BGLTSA, has a less optimistic view of Harvard.

"It's tolerant but not appreciative," she says. "Appreciative is the people who are actually curious about learning about the people outside of their community and are thankful that there are people who aren't like them so that they can open up their minds."

Sulmers, who says he thinks Harvard is tolerant, adds that the apathy of the gay community here may be "off-putting" to potential applicants.

"We have a very intelligent student body that is not prone to making objectionable comments about being queer," he says. "[Prejudice] does exist here and it's not necessarily overt.