Hegseth to Remove Harvey Milk's Name from U.S. Navy Ship

They never stop being hateful.

(Harvey Milk. Image credit: Associated Press)

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This afternoon, Military.com’s Konstantin Toropin reported that Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Secretary of Defense, has ordered the renaming of the USNS Harvey Milk, a U.S. Navy vessel dedicated to the legacy of the gay rights icon.

Harvey Milk was the first non-incumbent, openly gay man to be elected to office in the United States as a Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978. His election was a watershed moment in American politics.

Ten months into his term, he was assassinated by fellow Supervisor Dan White, who, only moments before, also shot-and-killed San Francisco Mayor George Moscone.

That evening, tens of thousands of mourners formed a candlelit procession from Castro Street to City Hall as news of the assassinations reverberated around the country and the world.

Although Mr. Milk has long been an icon in the LGBTQ community, his legacy achieved wider prominence with the 2008 film Milk (dir. Gus Van Sant), when he was portrayed by Sean Penn, who won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance. Dustin Lance Black became the first openly gay winner of Best Screenplay for penning the script.

Harvey Milk’s particular brilliance as an elected official was focussing on the everyday problems of his constituents. He was a gay rights icon in his own time, but his political savvy was centered in being obsessed with listening to the concerns of all voters and addressing them with energetic intention.

And yet, even while being a master of constituent services, he never shied away from his pride in being gay at a time when the country was still a long distance from broad acceptance of the gay community.

Despite his popularity among San Francisco residents, Mr. Milk knew that his increased visibility and barriers-breaking career in public service may lead to his assassination. He recorded several statements in the event that should happen, one of which included this quote:

“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.”

Today, based on most recent data, there are more than 1,300 openly-LGBTQ elected officials in the United States, including thirteen Members of Congress, three governors, and 235 state legislators.

During the Biden Administration, Pete Buttigieg became the first openly gay cabinet secretary and, during the 2020 Democratic primary, became the first only gay presidential candidate to win a primary contest with his victory in the Iowa Caucus.

So many of the advancements in LGBTQ equality in our country can be traced back to the groundbreaking leadership of Harvey Milk.

In 2016, then-Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced his intention to name a John Lewis-class underway replenishment oiler the USNS Harvey Milk in honor of his legacy of public service in elected office and the military.

Mr. Milk served in the U.S. Navy as a diving officer, and later as a diving instructor, from 1951 to 1955. He was forced out of service with an “other than honorable” discharge on account of his homosexuality.

It is quite clear that Pete Hegseth is removing his name from this vessel as a direct attack on the visibility of LGBTQ Americans, specifically service members, and it is a terrible signal of where things are headed if Hegseth and Trump are not confronted on their hatred toward the LGBTQ community.

Any Secretary of Defense who would intentionally and irrationally remove the name of a gay veteran from a U.S. Navy vessel is making clear what he thinks of the open service of gay service members, and it would not surprise me if that path ahead leads to a reinstatement of a ban on gay, lesbian, and bisexual members of the military.

It is certainly no accident that Hegseth is doing this during Pride Month. We cannot afford to be naïve on this or extend the benefit of the doubt to people who have never deserved it.

Even those who support LGBTQ rights but may not particularly care what any given U.S. Navy vessel is named need to understand that this is a major domino leading toward much crueler actions.

If you are a Member of Congress or one of their staff reading this, I would urge you to sound the alarm on this action of degradation against LGBTQ Americans.

For those who are wondering how else they can make their anger clear on this matter, I would offer that supporting LGBTQ candidates for elected office is a powerfully tangible way to do that.

Please consider donating to Victory Fund and LPAC, two organizations that have been enormously effective at increasing LGBTQ representation in elected office.

Harvey Milk stood tall in a world which he knew may kill him. The least we can do is support those who follow his courageous example.

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