Pentagon strips Harvey Milk's name from Navy ship on Pride weekend
Pentagon to rename USNS Harvey Milk in pursuit of military's "warrior ethos"
In a big hit to the LGBTQ+ community across the country and in the Bay Area, the Pentagon plans to wipe away gay rights activist and former San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk's name from a U.S. Navy vessel. We hear from the civil rights leader who was also Milk's intern, Cleve Jones.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that the U.S. Navy was renaming the USNS Harvey Milk, named for one of the country’s first openly gay elected officials in San Francisco.
Ship renamed
The ship will now be renamed the Oscar V. Peterson, after a chief petty officer who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for valor during World War II.
Hegseth said the move is "taking the politics out of ship naming."
Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to a public office in California as a member of the San Francisco board of supervisors.
Pride month
The announcement came during Pride Month, when San Francisco is kicking off a huge weekend of parade and festivities, though Hegseth had foreshadowed he would strip Harvey Milk off the ship earlier this month.
The news was first published by Military.com, which reported that the order was specifically made by Hegseth, and the timing of the announcement — during Pride month — was intentional, and part of the administration's move toward "reestablishing the warrior ethos."
The USNS Harvey Milk is not a combat vessel, and is part of the John Lewis class of oiler ships named for civil rights leaders. Other vessels in that class include the USNS Earl Warren, USNS Robert F. Kennedy, and the USNS Sojourner Truth.
'Cruel, bullies'
When Hegseth first signaled he would do this, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who now represents Milk's district, said the move was cruel and intended to cause harm during Pride month.
"Donald Trump has put the worst people from high school in charge of important public agencies," said Mandelman. "They are bullies, they’re looking for bullying things to do."
The USNS Harvey Milk was christened in November 2021. The ship was co-sponsored by the late U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, who served as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors during Harvey Milk's term in office.
Milk was in the Navy
Milk enlisted in the Navy in 1951 and served as a diving officer during the Korean War. He left the service in 1955 with a "less than honorable discharge" after he was questioned about his sexuality.
Milk was assassinated in 1978 by former supervisor Dan White, who was sentenced to seven years for the crime.