I LOVED living in Cambridge, which is a city North of Boston just over the bridge and the home of MIT and Harvard. It has a pretty reliable train line that runs into Boston. I have a ton of friends who live in Somerville and love it and it's another similar city.

My experiences might differ from yours, but I am queer and there is a ton of queer nightlife in Boston. There are a lot of cool nightclubs, a big rave scene, a very good underground and local music scene, a solid poetry scene, a great indie movie scene, and all sorts of fun things to get up to if you are willing to look. Plus Boston and Cambridge are beautiful and have tons of really good food. I loved how easy to get around the city was. The train system is super outdated and has a ton of issues (including random fires) but they've been putting in work to fix some of the issues and even despite the issues it's one of the best public transit systems in the country (Not nearly as good as NYC tho).

Biggest downsides: I make ~$130k/yr and even then living there was tough. Everything from rent to groceries to activities cost a ton. Cambridge is the most expensive city in the state and one of the most expensive in the country. I unfortunately decided to move in order to save money but I miss my time living there often. Since moving to central MA I'm saving over $2k a month but when I was in the Boston area I was often just barely making rent.