Gay 9-Year-Old Asks Pete Buttigieg For Help Being Brave

No matter which presidential candidate you’re rooting for, or which policies and political histories you may disagree with, there’s something undeniably inspiring about the fact that an openly gay candidate has made it this far in the race.

And particularly in the current political climate, where LGBTQ rights are being challenged and hate crimes are on the rise, seeing a gay man competing to hold America’s highest office can mean a lot to young queer kids who are trying to figure out where they might fit in this world.

9-year-old Zachary Ro proved just how important that representation is when he approached Pete Buttigieg at a Colorado campaign rally over the weekend.

“Thank you for being so brave,” he wrote in a question chosen at random from submissions at the rally. “Would you help me tell the world I’m gay, too? I want to be brave like you.”

Buttigieg brought the boy up on the stage after his question was read by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

“I don’t think you need a lot of advice from me on bravery,” he told Ro. “You seem pretty strong.”

“To see you… 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 thousands of people you’ve never met, that’s really something,” Buttigieg said.

“It won’t always be easy, but that’s okay, because you know you are,” he continued. “And that’s really important. Because 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.”

Mayor Pete also encouraged Ro to be brave because he’ll never know who he may be inspiring with his honesty and bravery as well.

“And you’ll never know whose life you may be affecting right now, just by standing here right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of power in that.”