A nine-year-old boy asked Pete Buttigieg for help coming out as gay. The incident took place at a town hall meeting in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday.
Members of the audience submitted questions for the Democratic Presidential hopeful to answer.
The boy, who was later identified as Zachary Ro, wrote: “Thank you for being so brave. Would you help me tell the world I’m gay, too? I want to be brave like you.”
On stage, he also gave Buttigieg a bracelet he had made, which Mayor Peter said he would wear for the rest of the event.
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Answering the boy’s question, Buttigieg said, “I don’t think you need a lot of advice for me on bravery. You seem pretty strong to me.
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“It took me a long time to figure out how to tell even my best friend that I was gay,” he continued, “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.”
He went on to offer two pieces of advice, saying, “The first thing is that it won’t always be easy, but that’s okay because you know who you are. 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.”
Buttigieg went on to tell Ro to be mindful of, “who’s taking their lead from you, who’s watching you and deciding that they can be a little braver because you have been brave.
“When I was trying to figure out who I was, I was afraid that who I was might mean that I could never make a difference. And what wound up happening instead is that it’s a huge part of the difference I get to make. I never could have seen that coming, and you’ll never know whose life you might be affecting right now, just by standing here. There’s a lot of power in that.”
Related: ‘Queers Against Pete’ crash Buttigieg fundraiser, call him “gross”
Buttigieg concluded by telling Ro, “I think you’ve already got it together, so I’m excited to see what you’re going to do as a leader. Just promise me you won’t run for president until after I’m done because I think you might be strong competition.”
Jim
If this is the only thing Pete accomplished by his candidacy I say kudos.
Harley
Oh boy. I can see the religious Reicht clutching their pearls now, accusing gays of recruiting young boys into homosexuality. Reminds me of a sign outside a Catholic Church saying “Is your son saying he is a homosexual? Schedule a private session with a priest today”. Yea, nothing can go wrong with that now.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Dead on predicting that one!
“Look, he actually is recruiting that boy in public”!!
jlicks
They already are on facebook..They saying that Pete is a ped and he made this young boy gay.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
As much as the Orange Puppet has given the lunatic fright wing nutbag smcubags hope, this moving heartwarming moment gives me hope. We have an openly Gay candidate actually polling ok. And a brave boy being unafraid to declare who he is.
Now unfortunately we await the pernocious vile trolls to begin slithering onto this comment section with their ignorant nonsensical poo…..
Cam
And this is why we don’t want closet cases in office. We want people who are out. Look at what that visibility inspired. Good for both of them.
frapachino
This is how his campaign expects to win an election , by exploiting a child for political brownie points from the ignorant woke crowd! And people wonder why Trump got elected and will likely win again! He’s 9 years old people come on!
Cam
Nothing an ant-LGBT troll account hates worse than proof that we exist.
Funny how I don’t hear Republicans screaming about anti-Abortion marchers using 5 year old kids in their marches. But here a kid volunteered a question and you are faking outrage.
Please send smarter trolls, you’re terrible at this.
JClark
This was a wonderfully positive story. Why do you even read this publication?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
You are a nothing more than a vile noxious puddle of puke smcubag troll… slither back to the rock you came from under…
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Cam: You were more restrained in your reply. But spot on all points!
Cam
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Right? Bigots gonna bigot.
Thad
Gay kids come from the factory that way. And they’re fine.
Boston495
Pete handled that perfectly. Even if Zachary decides later that he is bi or whatever, he knows that’s it all ok. Be who you are. Pete is totally right.
Joshooeerr
Can you imagine any of the other candidates handling such a delicate and potentially embarrassing situation with such compassion, intelligence, nuance and humour? This is why Pete is presidential material and the others are not. I applaud Sanders and Warren for going hard on some of their key policies, but we all know that, even it they are elected, there’s little chance of them being implemented, and their abrasive styles will hinder rather than help. At least Pete is articulate and intelligent enough to find a way to what is achievable, and smart enough not to make promises that will never be kept.
brahbate
What a brave little boy … or young man, I should say. I would have died doing what Zach did.
Now we wait for the pearl-clutching reich wing homophones (as they reach for their smelling salts) to come out of the woodwork and trash Zach and Pete.
I bet Miss Lindsay Graham is having to take the vapors after seeing this.
Felecia
Oh-my-gay-God…I am 56 and NEVER expected to have an out LGBT candidate for President in my lifetime; much less anything like this video, where a young man asks Mayor Pete for advice in a public forum. When I quit screaming “YES, we have ARRIVED” ( I knew at 5 that I was different, then was out at 11) I broke down sobbing…first for joy; then it hit me that the disgusting, evil Haters would find a way to twist this incredible moment into some kind of sick ‘proof’ that Buttigieg is a recruiting pedophile…and back to screaming again, but not in a good way. Knowing how sneaky and underhanded Trump and his GOP minions are, who’s to say that this kid WASN’T a plant…parents paid handsomely to push their 9 yr old up on stage to sandbag Pete and create that ‘proof’ for America’s homophobics and King Donnie’s agenda. It angers me that I can’t even enjoy this moment, because I have no idea if it’s genuine or not…and if not, the level of dirty tricks from the Republicans just got stronger and more despicable…if that’s even possible. So if the kid’s family is now moving into a mansion and also planning a vacation to some sunny beach, not to mention a nice chunk of change in the mom and dad’s bank account…we have seen Trump’s OWN ‘fake news’…I hate to be a downer at this amazing video; but I simply can’t help wondering if it was set up because Pete is turning out to be too much competition and it was decided to stop ignoring him in favor of a total-and-complete-destruction attempt on his campaign…go ahead and diss me if you want to; yet I can’t help it. The stakes are too high, and I wouldn’t put it past ANY of the other candidates in the race to smear him in order to further their standings in the polls. If Buttigieg wins the election AND the presidency, I’ll expect to see young Zac as one of the first guests invited to the White House. THEN I’ll know it’s real, lol….yeah, it sucks to be so negative, I’m aware and I apologize if wrong. HOPING that I’m wrong….