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The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has ordered the US navy to strip the name of prominent gay rights activist and navy veteran Harvey Milk from a ship during the middle of June – a month meant to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community – according to multiple outlets.
The order to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a fleet replenishment oiler, was in a memorandum from the office of the secretary of the navy, which was reported on and viewed by Military.com and CBS. Those reports note that the navy secretary, John Phelan, was instructed to strip the ship of its name by Hegseth.
The timing of the announcement, which comes during Pride month, was reportedly intentional.
The renaming is being done to ensure “alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture”, referring to Donald Trump, Hegseth and Phelan, according to the memorandum.
The decision to rename the ship will be publicized on 13 June, according to Military.com
The Guardian has contacted the defense department for comment.
The vessel was initially named after Milk in 2016 during the Barack Obama administration. Milk was a prominent gay rights activist who served in the US navy during the Korean war. He later went on to run for office in California where he won a seat on the San Francisco board of supervisors. As one of the US’s first openly gay politicians, Milk became a forefront figure of the gay rights movement across the country before his assassination in 1978 by a former city supervisor.
In addition to renaming the USNS Harvey Milk, the defense department plans to rename other vessels that have been given names of various icons throughout American history.
Documents reviewed by CBS showed that vessels on the US navy’s “recommended list” include USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez and USNS Medgar Evers.
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In response to reports of the defense department renaming its vessels, the California representative and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “In San Francisco, we take great pride that our Harvey’s name adorns a mighty ship among a new class of navy vessels – named for the conscience of the Congress, John Lewis – which honor titans in the fight for freedom. The names of those who fought for civil rights and human rights bring luster to these ships – as their leadership brought luster to America.”
She went on to say: “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.”
