Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the U.S. Navy to rename the USNS ship Harvey Milk, which currently pays tribute to the LGBTQ+ rights icon. The decision will be made official on June 13, in the middle of Pride month. According to several insiders, this choice was intentional.
The tanker was originally named after Milk in 2016, during Barack Obama’s second and final term. Milk was a prominent gay rights activist who served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. He later ran for election in California, where he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. As one of the first openly gay politicians in the United States, he became a leading figure in the LGBTQ movement across the country. He was assassinated in 1978, by a former city supervisor.
According to CBS, the ship dedicated to him will not be the only one to be renamed. Hegseth has made removing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from the military a top priority. In fact, the Pentagon seems intent on renaming a number of vessels that have been named after several prominent figures in U.S. history. These include USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez, and USNS Medgar Evers.
In a memo last month, Hegseth ordered a review of books in military libraries that address issues such as sexism and racism. He said such publications promote divisive concepts and a gender ideology that are incompatible with the Department’s core mission.
Former Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, now a California Representative, also spoke on the issue affecting Navy ships, saying: “The reported decision by the Trump administration to change the names of the USNS Harvey Milk and other ships in the John Lewis-class is a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American dream”.
“Our military is the most powerful in the world,” she added, “but this spiteful move does not strengthen our national security or the ‘warrior’ ethos. Instead, it is a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country.”
