Ethan Ide’s desk is littered with bottles of pink nail polish.
The Babson College student, entering his senior year studying entrepreneurship, likes to keep one fingernail painted pink — a symbol of his membership in the Boston Queer Club.
It’s a social group he founded for college-aged members of the LGBTQ+ community, and a symbol of his commitment to inclusion and acceptance.
“What we’re doing in Boston is building a blueprint for community and how to create community,” Ide said.
He grew up in Los Angeles, where he attended an all-boys Jesuit high school. He said that when he came out as gay, he didn’t have many ways to connect with others who had similar experiences, and though he tried to start a “Gay-Straight Alliance” club at his school, the school administration pushed back.
It wasn’t until Ide, 21, used dating apps that he met gay people. However, the apps weren’t a good place to make friends because there were always strings attached, he said.
He hoped his community would expand when he got to college, but even then, he was disappointed by the options. Babson had an LGBTQ+ student group and resources for students in the Office of Belonging and Inclusion, but most of the meet-ups and events were focused on education — not meeting others and having fun.
“I started to meet people who had very similar stories to me, and all of them kind of told me the same thing. And by the end, it was, ‘Ethan. You don’t understand. There aren’t people like me out there. I don’t have gay friends like you, you don’t get it,’” he said.
“There were multiple people who cried on my shoulders telling me these things, and I was like, I do get it,” he added. “I understand the problem, and I’m going to try to do something about it.”
Members of the Boston Queer Club at one of the organization’s social events.Courtesy Boston Queer Club
In the spring of 2023, Ide came up with the idea for the Boston Queer Club, and began researching how he could get it started.
He interviewed 25 students at colleges across the country about their social lives and sexualities to get an idea of what his club should be. He visited the LGBTQ+ spaces at nearly every college in Boston to meet the staff and find out what programming worked and what didn’t.
He learned that, like him, many students felt like their options were very limited for meeting people unless they were using an app to find a date. For students who were 21, they might have a gay bar or club nearby that they could go to, but those who were underage were out of luck.
Even the school-sponsored social opportunities that did exist weren’t always the right fit, Ide said.
“When I talked to all these queer students, they felt like they weren’t gay enough to be in these clubs. They were super intimidated,” he said. “They didn’t know where to start.”
The following April, the Boston Queer Club held its inaugural comedy show at Cambridge Community Center, bringing in a Boston University improv group to perform. Last summer, they held their first concert, and in the fall of 2024, they jumped into a series of four events, both comedy and concerts.
For this past spring semester, Ide said he and his team of five or six volunteers from schools around Boston doubled the number of events, averaging about 30 attendees per event. They also brought in about four times the revenue from ticket sales than they did in the fall, which goes back into funding more events.
Boston Queer Club members show off their pink-painted fingernails, the symbol of the club’s “Pink Promise.”Courtesy Boston Queer Club
One of the most important components of the Boston Queer Club is the “Pink Promise,” the origin of Ide’s pink nail polish collection. To join BQC, prospective members must simply agree to treat everyone at club events with respect, empathy, compassion and acceptance to ensure that everyone feels safe and welcome.
By painting one fingernail pink, BQC members signal that they have made this promise — and also get discounted admission and other perks at events.
With attacks on LGBTQ+ people happening around the country, Ide said, having that security has been especially important to the people he’s spoken with.
“When somebody shows up to an event with a single nail painted pink, they’re making a promise to be a safe, supportive, inclusive member of our community,” he said. “And then when you’re in a room of pink nails, you see that other people have made that promise to you.”
The Boston Queer Club team organized three events for this summer, including their first-ever open mic night that was held on June 6. They also got a group together to march in the Boston Pride parade on June 14, followed by a concert that night.
In the fall, Ide said he hopes to hold at least eight events and introduce more variety into their programming, such as arts and crafts nights, a book club, picnics or a club night.
But he has much larger aspirations for the club as well, starting with a merch line and, of course, a BQC-branded pink nail polish. In a few years, he hopes the organization can spread to other cities with many college-age people but few LGBTQ+ resources.
“It’s a small but mighty organization that we’ve built here,” Ide said.
