US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has ordered the secretary of the Navy to rename the oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk, according to a defence official.
The ship, which was launched in 2021 and named after the gay rights activist and Navy veteran, who was made to resign from the force because of his sexual orientation, is set to be officially renamed later this month, the official said.
It is not clear what the new name will be, but the timing is notable given that June is Pride Month.
The Office of the Secretary of Defence did not respond to a request for comment.
It is rare for a ship to be renamed, and it has not happened on the orders of a defence secretary in recent memory.
The last time a ship was renamed in 2023, the move was based upon the recommendation of a congressional commission established to review names across the military with ties to the Confederacy. As a result of the study, the Navy decided to rename the cruiser USS Chancellorsville and research ship USNS Maury.
The USNS Harvey Milk is part of the John Lewis class of oiler ships that are named after civil rights leaders. Other ships in this class include the USNS Earl Warren, USNS Robert F Kennedy, USNS Lucy Stone and USNS Sojourner Truth.
The move is in line with Hegseth’s focus on re-establishing a “warrior culture” across the military, which he has mainly tried to do by eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs and content throughout the Defence Department and finding creative ways to revert military bases back to their original, Confederate-linked names.
In a statement, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said that “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 – 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.”
At the time the ship was launched, the Biden administration had a very different stance on diversity.
“He made a difference. That’s the kind of naval leader that we need,” then-Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said of Milk during the christening ceremony in November 2021.
The ship was co-sponsored by then-Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who was the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors when Milk served on the board. She publicly announced Milk’s assassination in 1978 at the age of 48. Milk was one of the first out gay politicians elected to office in the US, and the first out gay official elected in California.
Milk served in the Navy as a diving officer during the Korean War, at a time when gay service members were not allowed to openly acknowledge their sexuality.
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During his time as a diving instructor in San Diego in the 1950s, his supervisors caught him at a park popular with gay men, according to his nephew Stuart Milk.
In 1955, after the Navy officially questioned Milk about his sexual orientation, he was made to resign with the rank of lieutenant junior grade.
After moving from New York to California, Milk helped start the Castro Village Association, one of the first predominantly LGBTQ-owned business groups in the country. In 1977, he was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors.
While serving as a city supervisor, Milk introduced legislation to protect the gay community, including a gay rights ordinance in 1978 to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in housing or employment. He and other activists also succeeded in striking down Proposition 6, which would have mandated the firing of gay or lesbian teachers in California.
Less than a year after Milk was inaugurated as city supervisor, he and Mayor George Moscone were shot to death in the San Francisco City Hall by a former fellow city supervisor over a job dispute.
When his killer was sentenced to seven years, riots broke out over what many perceived to be a lenient sentence.
