Geschlect said that although “some of it is just perception, much of it is very real...partially because there were no BGLTS tutors, and because many students see the Porters as more conservative and so that they don’t like BGLT students,” said Geschlect.

But Geschlect said he has found the Porters to be nothing but supportive.

Geshlect pointed to the previous lack of BGLTS tutors in Dunster as one reason for the uncomfortable environment.

“The wonderful [BGLTS] tutors in Mather House have been a great resource, but they cannot be a permanent substitute for our own in-residence tutors,” he wrote in the e-mail.

One of Dunster’s non-resident BGLTS tutors, Michael Katherine Haynie ’00, said the House needed a in-house tutor to support BGLT students.

“If a student has a real issue, it’s going to be at three in the morning,” Haynie said.

Haynie said this support work rather than social activities is the primary responsibility of such tutors.

“We tried to host more active events in the past, but students just weren’t interested,” Haynie said. “But the House was once really gay-friendly, the Senior Tutor was gay, and perhaps it was felt it wasn’t needed.”

Sargent said that the new tutors were planning a variety of activities but would be sensitive to what he said was the current reliance of the Dunster gay community on Mather House’s events.

“I think we want to be careful not to conflict with Mather events, to not become competitive, but rather complimentary–to realize that we’re dealing with a community that extends across Houses,” Sargent said.

Erik P. Garrison ’06, a Dunster resident who attended the social, said he thought having the BGLTS tutor would help combat any perception that Dunster was homophobic.

“It changes perception, and perception is reality,” he said.

Cabot is now the only House without a BGLTS advisor.

—Staff writer Claire Provost can be reached at jprovost@fas.harvard.edu.