9-year-old asks Pete Buttigieg to help him ‘tell the world’ he’s gay at Colorado rally
The audience at a Colorado rally for Pete Buttigieg broke into cheers of “love means love” after a 9-year-old boy asked the Democratic presidential hopeful to help him come out as gay.
Zachary Ro was invited onstage in Aurora on Saturday after pre-submitting a question for the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, which read, “Thank you for being so brave. Would you help me tell the world I’m gay, too? I want to be brave like you,” the Colorado Sun reported.
Zachary, who was attending the rally with his parents, gave Buttigieg a bracelet, which he promptly put on before sharing a heart-warming bit of advice with the boy, CNN reported.
“I don’t think you need a lot of advice for me on bravery. You seem pretty strong to me,” Buttigieg tells the boy in video of the exchange. “It took me a long time to figure out how to tell even my best friend that I was gay, let alone to go out there and tell the world and to see you willing to come to terms with who you are in a room full of 1,000 people, thousands of people you’ve never met that’s, that’s really something.”
Buttigieg, who is gay and has been married to his husband, Chasten, since 2018, went on to tell Zachary that while things won’t always be easy, Zachary’s sense of self will help during challenging times.
“When you know who you are, you have a center of gravity that can hold you together when all kinds of chaos is happening around you,” he said.
Buttigieg told Zachary that it’s important to remember that others are watching him and might “be a little braver because you have been brave,” adding that he’d be rooting for the boy.
After their touching discussion, Zachary told KDVR’s Joe St. George he was inspired by Buttigieg and hopes to be like him someday.
“I just feel inspired by Pete being openly gay and running for president at the same time. Someday I want to be like him,” he said, adding that he thought Buttigieg gave him good advice.
When asked what pointers he’d give other boys, Zachary said, “I’d probably tell them to just be themselves.”