Pete Hegseth orders Navy to strip name of gay rights icon Harvey Milk from ship in time for Pride Month
US Navy could rename ships that celebrate civil rights leaders
- US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the renaming of the USNS Harvey Milk, a Navy ship named after the gay rights icon and Navy veteran, as part of an effort to reestablish a “warrior culture”.
- The Office of the Secretary of the Navy is also considering renaming several other naval ships named after civil rights leaders, including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and USNS Harriet Tubman.
- An official said that the announcement timing during Pride Month was intentional, according to reports.
- Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, was assassinated in 1978 and posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
- Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned the renaming decision as a “shameful, vindictive erasure” of those who fought to break down barriers.