Pete Buttigieg recently shared a heartwarming moment with a young supporter who asked the presidential hopeful for help coming out as gay.
According to CNN, 9-year-old Zachary Ro took to the stage at Buttigieg's rally in Denver on Saturday night after he called the politician "brave", and asked how he could be brave, too.
Ro told the Colorado Sun that writing down his question had been a spur-of-the-moment decision while walking into the rally that night, and it was ultimately picked from a fishbowl to be read directly to Buttigieg.
"Thank you for being so brave," the pre-submitted question began, as read on stage by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. "Would you help me tell the world I'm gay too? I want to be brave like you."
"I don't think you need a lot of advice for me on bravery," the Democratic candidate began. "You seem pretty strong to me."
"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."
"It won't always be easy, but that's OK because you know who you are," he explained. "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 also told Ro his bravery might inspire others, and could even help them "be a little braver because you have been brave."
These coins feature the campaign's "rules of a road," or code of conduct staff and supporters are requested to follow.
"I think you've already got it together, so I'm excited to see what you're going to do as a leader," Buttigieg told Ro before he rejoined his parents in the audience. "Just promise me you won't run for president until after I'm done because I think you might be strong competition."
h/t: CNN
