Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the United States Navy to remove the name of slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk from oiler USNS Harvey Milk, according to several reports.
A memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, which was viewed by Military.com, showed that the Navy was preparing to change the name of the ship, and a “defense official” confirmed to the outlet that Hegseth had ordered U.S. Secretary of the Navy John Phelan to change the name of the ship:
A defense official confirmed that the Navy was making preparation 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.
While the defense official told the outlet that the “timing of the announcement” during Pride Month “was intentional,” the memorandum explained that the “renaming was being done so that there is ‘alignment” with President Donald Trump and Hegseth’s “objectives,” according to the outlet:
However, the memo reviewed by Military.com noted that the renaming was being done so that there is “alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture,” apparently referencing President Donald Trump, Hegseth and Phelan.
Several sources also confirmed to ABC News that Hegseth had ordered the ship to be re-named, with Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell issuing a statement that Hegseth was “committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities” and the country’s “history.”
As Breitbart News previously reported, in July 2016, former U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced plans to name a ship after Milk.
In November 2021, the USNS Harvey Milk was “formally christened and launched” into service, Breitbart News reported.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs website, Milk, a U.S. Navy Veteran “made history by becoming California’s first openly gay elected official in 1978.” Milk is described as effusing “the values of honor, courage and commitment as he fought to expand gay rights.”
From the Navy’s founding to the modern day, its members — active, reserve and civilian — are bound to the values of honor, courage and commitment. Navy Veteran Harvey Milk held onto each of those values throughout his civilian life with great care. When he made history by becoming California’s first openly gay elected official in 1978, it was clear that Milk had integrated the Navy’s core values into his activism. He effused the values of honor, courage and commitment as he fought to expand gay rights. Though his life was cut short after being assassinated less than a year in elected office, it was clear that his life and legacy exemplified the Navy’s core values.
Several Democrats such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), responded to the news by describing the move as being “spiteful,” while others pointed out that Milk was a “pedophile.”
“Our military is the most powerful in the world – but this spiteful move does not strengthen our national security or the ‘warrior’ ethos,” Pelosi wrote in a post on X. “It is a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream.”
“How, exactly, does this make our warfighters any safer?” Coons wrote in a post on X.
“Harvey Milk was a pedophile,” Mary Rice Hasson, the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., wrote in a post on X. “This is the right thing to do.”
“As I point out in False Flag, Harvey Milk had sex with underage boys,” Joy Pullmann, an executive editor at the Federalist, wrote in a post on X. “He doesn’t deserve any honors anywhere, ever.”
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