Nine-year-old boy asks Buttigieg advice on coming out as gay

DENVER, COLORADO (BLOOMBERG) - Mr Pete Buttigieg welcomed a nine-year-old boy on stage at a rally in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday night (Feb 23) after the young boy asked the Democratic presidential candidate for help on coming out as gay.

"Would you help me tell the world I'm gay too," the boy wrote in a pre-submitted question that was read to Mr Buttigieg. "I want to be brave like you."

Mr Buttigieg, who is the first major openly gay presidential candidate, was momentarily speechless.

The crowd, numbering in the thousands, started to cheer "love is love" as the young boy, Zachary, was taken onto the stage.

"Well, I don't think you need a lot of advice from me," Mr Buttigieg told Zachary. "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."

Mr Buttigieg, who was then joined on stage by his husband, Chasten, didn't come out as gay until his 30s, during his first term as mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

"It won't always be easy, but that's okay because you know who you are," Mr Buttigieg told Zachary.

"And that's really important because when you know who you are, you have a centre of gravity that can hold you together when all kinds of chaos is happening around you."

Mr Buttigieg also lauded Zachary's courage, telling him others might decide "they can be a little braver because you have been brave".

He added: "And the last thing I want you to know is even if I can't promise it'll always be easy, I can promise you that I'm going to be rooting for you."

The rally was Mr Buttigieg's first stop after Nevada's caucuses on Saturday.

With 43 per cent of precincts reporting in that contest, he was in third place, at 14.5 per cent, behind Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.