(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Hegseth shows how low he can go with renaming the USNS Harvey Milk [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-06-03

Harvey Milk was assassinated in 1978 along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. Milk was on the SF Board of Supervisors. He grew up in a Navy family and served during the Korean War aboard the USS Kittiwake, a submarine rescue ship. He rose to the grade of lieutenant, but in 1955, was forced to resign with an "other than honorable" discharge because his homosexuality. Either that, or face a court-martial. Those were the times. In later years, he was a respected gay rights activist. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 2009.

In 2016, the Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, told Congress that he going to name the John Lewis-class oilers after civil rights activists. Mabus named one of the ships after Harvey Milk.

Pete Hegseth is going to rename the ship because Harvey Milk was gay, pure and simple.

A Defense official confirmed that the Navy was making preparations to strip the ship of its name but noted that Navy Secretary John Phelan was ordered to do so by Hegseth. The official also said that the timing of the announcement --- occurring during Pride month --- was intentional.

However, the memo reviewed by Military.com noted that the renaming was being done so that there is "alignment with the President and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of re-establishing a warrior culture," apparently referencing President Trump, Hegseth, and Phelan.

Warrior culture. It's better to call it toxic masculinity. Hegseth is doing his best to get women out of the Armed Forces, too. Trump banned trans in the military in January. That is being fought in court.

The renaming news was scheduled to become public June 13th. Hegseth and Phelan are going to announce the renaming aboard the USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides. It's a desecration of the ship to do that and an affront to the US Constitution itself.

When the USNS Harvey Milk was actually launched in 2021, then Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said, "The Secretary of the Navy needed to be here today, not just to amend the wrongs of the past, but to give inspiration to all of our LBGTQ community leaders who served in the Navy, in uniform today and in the civilian workforce as well too, and to tell them we are committed to them in the future."

Those are words you're never going to hear out of Hegseth or Phelan's mouths.

"For far too long, sailors like Lieutenant Milk were forced into the shadows or, worse yet, forced out of our beloved Navy. That injustice is part of our Navy history, but so is the perseverance of all who continue to serve in the face of injustice."

Renaming a ship last happened in 2023, when a ship named after a Confederate, the cruiser USS Chancellorsville to the USS Robert Smalls, and the research ship USNS Maury to USNS Marie Tharp. Considering what Trump has has said about recovering statues memorials and plaques relating to history, meaning the Confederacy, it would be not out of character for Hegseth and Phelan to change the names back.

CBS reported Tuesday that other Lewis-class oilers face the same fate. The USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and the USNS Harriet Tubman are apparently next, and even more.

Nancy Pelosi responded to the news with, "The reported decision by the Trump administration to change the name of USNS Harvey Milk and other ships in the John Lewis-class is a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down the barriers for all to chase the American dream."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom chimed in, saying, "Donald Trump's assault on veterans has hit a new low. Harvey Milk wasn't just a civil rights icon, he was a Korean War combat veteran whose commander called him 'outstanding.' Stripping his name from a Navy ship won't erase his legacy as an American icon, but it does reveal Trump's contempt for the very values our veterans fight to protect."

In February, Hegseth renamed Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, but for a different Bragg than the Confederate. Fort Moore was changed back to Fort Benning, but for a different Benning. Sure, we really believe that. It's so transparent.

Pete Hegseth is beyond contempt. The man should never have gotten the job in the first place. This action of renaming ships is part of the whole pattern of the Trump administration to minimize the influence of the LBGTQ community and take away their heros and their history.

They can't take away his Presidential Medal of Freedom, but they can take away the name of his ship. Harvey Milk deserves better.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/3/2325832/-Hegseth-shows-how-low-he-can-go-with-renaming-the-USNS-Harvey-Milk?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.