{"id":41657,"date":"2025-06-04T12:23:42","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T19:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=41657"},"modified":"2025-06-04T12:23:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T19:23:43","slug":"hegseth-to-strip-milks-name-from-navy-vessel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/06\/04\/hegseth-to-strip-milks-name-from-navy-vessel\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth to strip Milk\u2019s name from Navy vessel\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li>by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebar.com\/search?author=1&amp;searchBox=John+Ferrannini&amp;advancedSearch=1&amp;submit=search&amp;search_for=exact+phrase\">John Ferrannini<\/a>, Assistant Editor&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:%20jferr1995@gmail.com\"><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tuesday, June 3, 2025 (ebar.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ebar.com\/image\/stories\/1510\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The USNS Harvey Milk was docked in San Francisco last March after it made its maiden voyage to the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo: Matthew S. Bajko<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the U.S. Navy to rename the ship named for the late San Francisco supervisor and gay rights icon Harvey Milk. The decision, coming during Pride Month, set off waves of criticism from LGBTQ officials and community leaders.<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2025\/06\/03\/hegseth-orders-navy-strip-name-of-gay-rights-icon-harvey-milk-ship.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Military.com<\/a>&nbsp;first reported the news June 3. &nbsp;<br><br>The outlet reported that the planned timing of the announcement June 13, just after World Pride wraps in the District of Columbia, is intentional, and that the move is being made to create \u201calignment with president [Donald Trump] and [Hegseth] objectives and [Navy Secretary John Phelan] priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture.\u201d<br><br>A number of naval ships in the John Lewis class of ships were named for civil rights heroes such as Milk, who himself was a Navy veteran. As the Bay Area Reporter noted in February 2020, Milk was given an &#8220;other than honorable&#8221; discharge from the U.S. Navy and forced to resign on February 7, 1955 rather than face a court-martial because of his homosexuality, according to a trove of naval records obtained by the paper.&nbsp;<br><br>Lewis, the late Democratic congressmember from Georgia, participated in the Nashville sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, and the March on Washington during the Civil Rights movement for Black Americans.<br><br>The Navy renaming ships is rare. Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) stated that the Navy is renaming other ships named for civil rights heroes. CBS News reports that other vessels up for consideration to be renamed include those named for the late Latino labor leader Cesar Chavez, slain Black civil rights activist Medgar Evers, and Harriet Tubman, the abolitionist and Union spy who led slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad after she escaped from slavery herself.<br><br>\u201cThe 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,\u201d Pelosi stated. \u201cOur military is the most powerful in the world \u2013 but this spiteful move does not strengthen our national security or the \u2018warrior\u2019 ethos. Instead, it is a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country.<br><br>\u201cAs the rest of us are celebrating the joy of Pride Month, it is my hope that the Navy will reconsider this egregious decision and continue to recognize the extraordinary contributions of Harvey Milk, a veteran himself, and all Americans who forged historic progress for our nation,\u201d Pelosi added.<br><br>In a statement on Tuesday on Facebook, Stuart Milk, the gay nephew of Milk, wrote that he and his family are \u201cheartbroken\u201d by the news. Stuart Milk is executive chair of the Harvey Milk Foundation and noted the statement is on behalf of the foundation and Milk\u2019s family.<br><br>\u201cI recently had the honor of spending three days and nights aboard the ship with the men and women who serve our country, and I was there as the ship replenished, while underway at sea, the Destroyer Squadron (DESRON2) accompanying the USS Gerald Ford in the Atlantic Ocean,\u201d Stuart Milk wrote. \u201cThe pride that all the men and women on those ships \u2013 gay, straight, Black, white, Hispanic, commissioned officers and enlisted personnel \u2013 all of them, without exception, expressed and relayed to me, was a testament to the American spirit of patriotism and respect for our nation&#8217;s collective history of growth.\u201d<br><br>Stuart Milk added that renaming the ship won\u2019t be silenced should the ship be renamed.<br><br>\u201cHarvey Milk&#8217;s legacy is certainly enhanced and celebrated by a US Naval Ship, however, his legacy will not be silenced or diminished by the renaming of that Naval ship,\u201d Stuart Milk wrote. \u201cRather such an action would only serve to prove that Harvey Milk style hope will continue to endure and inspire across the globe, and that neither bullets nor name stripping can stop Harvey&#8217;s overriding message to us all \u2013 when he prophetically anticipated making the ultimate sacrifice: \u2018Let the bullets that enter my brain, destroy every closet door.\u2019 \u201cYou gotta give &#8217;em hope.\u2019\u201d<br><br>Gay San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro district, stated, \u201cIt\u2019s part and parcel with all the other bullying, trolling actions this administration has taken. They miss no opportunity to demonstrate that they\u2019re not just a bunch of crooks and grifters; they\u2019re mean too.\u201d<br><br>Former Castro district supervisor Bevan Dufty, a gay man, stated he appreciated Pelosi\u2019s comments. He was present at the commissioning of the USNS Harvey Milk and was on board the ship when it stopped in San Francisco during its maiden voyage last March.<br><br>\u201cIt was only a matter of time,\u201d Dufty stated. \u201cBut it\u2019s a bitter crop they are planting. Even though Harvey didn\u2019t finish one year as supervisor, his legacy has shone bright globally since. This dime store defense secretary will be long forgotten and Harvey\u2019s name will be restored in the years ahead. At the commissioning, both the navy secretary and ship\u2019s captain acknowledged having gay sons. And that\u2019s why we will prevail.\u201d&nbsp;<br><br>Cleve Jones, the longtime gay activist who worked for Milk while he was a San Francisco supervisor in 1978, told the B.A.R. June 3, \u201cWith all that\u2019s going on in the world, from China and Taiwan, India and Pakistan ready to bomb each other, Gaza, and the ongoing war of Russia against Ukraine, America will sleep safer tonight knowing that Harvey Milk\u2019s name is not on a ship. Happy Pride.\u201d<br><br>Tom Ammiano, the gay former San Francisco supervisor and state assemblymember, told the B.A.R., \u201cHomophobia to this extent reveals his [Hegseth\u2019s] closet mentality.\u201d<br><br>Ammiano worked with Milk and helped spearhead the campaign against Proposition 6, a 1978 California ballot measure that would have barred gays and lesbians from being teachers.&nbsp;<br><br>\u201cChickenshit like this only makes the community stronger and makes a strong case for reaching out to other groups being debased, as Harvey advocated, taking to the streets in unity,\u201d Ammiano added.<br><br>Milk was an advocate of marginalized groups allying to achieve their aims. He forged alliances with organized labor and other groups during his career. Tragically, Milk was assassinated in November 1978, along with then-mayor George Moscone, at San Francisco City Hall by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read the rest of this story below<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>and never miss another!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sign up today&nbsp;to receive trusted LGBTQ news in your inbox.Please select the newsletters you&#8217;d like to subscribe to:Bay Area Reporter newsletterNews is Out weekly newsletterBay Area Reporter health newsletterSubmit<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) stated, \u201cThe removal of Harvey Milk\u2019s name from a naval vessel \u2013 during Pride Month, no less \u2013 is absolutely shameful. Harvey Milk was a hero. He was a veteran who served our country. He died for our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBrave LGBTQ veterans worked for years to achieve the naming of a ship for Harvey,\u201d Wiener continued. \u201cNow, Trump and Hegseth are wiping it away due to straight-up bigotry. They\u2019re determined to erase LGBTQ people from all aspects of public life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the Milk ship&#8217;s christening ceremony, then-Navy secretary Carlos Del Toro had noted he wanted to be there in order &#8220;to amend the wrongs of the past&#8221; in terms of the harassment LGBTQ servicemembers had faced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The B.A.R. was on the ship after it sailed through the Golden Gate for the first time&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebar.com\/story\/74548\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">last year<\/a>. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 746-foot vessel can have a full accompaniment of 99 persons. Throughout its interior are photos of Milk from various stages of his life, including his time in the Navy and later when he became a civil rights leader in San Francisco. The lone color photo shows Milk in his dress uniform with his mother.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An LGBTQ San Diego advisory group in 2012 had first called for a naval ship to be named for Milk. Four years later the Navy agreed to name one of its fleet replenishment oilers after Milk. The official naming ceremony took place on Treasure Island in San Francisco in August 2016 with Ray Mabus, at the time secretary of the Navy, and Pelosi, then the House minority leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It wouldn&#8217;t be until December 13, 2019 that the vessel&#8217;s first cut ceremony took place at the General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company&#8217;s San Diego shipyard. Nearly two years later, in November 2021, naval officials, servicemembers, and LGBTQ community leaders witnessed the USNS Harvey Milk leave dry dock for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nicole Murray Ramirez, who as the Queen Mother I of the Americas and Nicole the Great is the titular head of the international court, first thought of the ship-naming proposal after the repeal of the military&#8217;s homophobic &#8220;Don&#8217;t Ask, Don&#8217;t Tell&#8221; policy over a decade ago. The ship honor for Milk marked a significant turnaround from how he was treated by the military during his enlistment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe calls I\u2019m getting especially from veterans \u2013 it\u2019s heartbreaking,\u201d Murray Ramirez said when reached for comment by phone June 3. \u201cIf you saw the pictures from the christening, I had an American flag shirt. Every time I spoke at a march on Washington, I had an American flag shirt. The flag is ours too, and the national anthem is ours too. I come from a family of veterans \u2013 and because I&#8217;m quite the homo, when the draft came, I made a 4F \u2013 but I\u2019ve always supported veterans, and especially during \u2018Don\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Murray Ramirez said he is working on getting a press conference together, including San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, who is gay, in front of the USS Midway aircraft carrier in San Diego harbor. The news conference will be 8:30 a.m. June 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re the fabric of America,\u201d Murray Ramirez said. \u201cHarvey was not just about gay rights. \u2026 In honoring Milk you\u2019re honoring a proud Jewish man, a man who understood diversity, African American civil rights, all of us. \u2026 How dare they? And who\u2019s next?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S. Navy didn\u2019t return a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Updated, 6\/4\/25:<\/strong>&nbsp;This article has been updated with comments from Stuart Milk and SF Supervisor Rafael Mandelman; clarificaiton on other ships to possibly be renamed, and an update on the San Diego news conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The USNS Harvey Milk was docked in San Francisco last March after it made its maiden voyage to the city. Photo: Matthew S. Bajko Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the U.S. Navy to rename the ship named for the late San Francisco supervisor and gay rights icon Harvey&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/06\/04\/hegseth-to-strip-milks-name-from-navy-vessel\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41658,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41657\/revisions\/41658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}