Pete Hegseth orders Navy to strip name of gay rights icon Harvey Milk from ship in time for Pride Month

Defense secretary’s memo says stripping the name of the Navy veteran is part of an effort to reestablish ‘warrior culture’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that the ship bearing the name of gay rights icon and Navy veteran Harvey Milk be renamed, according to Military.com.

The Office of the Secretary of the Navy issued a memo revealing the plans to change the name of the replenishment oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk, which was christened in 2021. They’re also considering renaming several naval ships named after civil rights leaders and other distinguished Americans, CBS News noted.

An official noted that the Navy was taking steps to change the name of the ship, but added that the Navy Secretary, John Phelan, was ordered to make the name change by Hegseth. The official added that the announcement timing, coming during Pride Month, was intentional, according to Military.com.

Washington D.C. is hosting WorldPride celebrations this year.

Documents obtained by CBS News reveal that other ships under consideration for renaming are the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez, and USNS Medgar Evers.

The military is considering renaming the USNS Harvey Milk as well as several ships named after civil rights leaders and other prominent Americans (AFP via Getty Images)

The memo seen by Military.com stated that the name change was done for there to be "alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture," in a seeming reference to President Donald Trump, Hegseth, and Phelan.

Milk became the first openly gay man elected to public office in California when he became a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978 after winning an election the previous year. He was assassinated in November 1978 following the passage of a bill prohibiting housing and employment discrimination because of sexual orientation.

The renaming of the ship was set to become public on June 13, the memo said. While a new name for the Milk has not been announced, the memo said Hegseth and Phelan are set to make the announcement aboard the oldest commissioned ship in the Navy, the USS Constitution.

The Harvey Milk is an oiler ship in the John Lewis-class. It’s part of a group of ships named after civil rights activists. Lewis was a congressman and civil rights icon who passed away in 2020.

Instances of renaming Navy ships are rare, and the process is taboo according to Navy traditions, Military.com noted.

The Navy most recently renamed two ships in 2023 with connections to the Confederacy, the USS Chancellorsville and the research ship USNS Maury, to USS Robert Smalls and USNS Marie Tharp. Smalls was a slave who took charge of a Confederate ship and surrendered it to the Union, while Tharp was an oceanographer.

Harvey Milk was assassinated in 1978, shortly after his election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (AP)

However, these name changes were done following the recommendation of a commission established by Congress to review names with connections to the Confederacy in the entire military.

The USNS Harvey Milk received its name in 2016 from the Navy secretary at the time, Ray Mabus. USNI News noted that Milk came from a family with a history of service in the Navy. Milk was commissioned in 1951. During the Korean War, he was an operations and diving officer on the submarines USS Kittiwake and USS Chanticleer. However, in 1954, Milk was facing a court-martial for previously having taken part in a “homosexual act.”

Instead of a trial, Milk left the armed forces, similarly to many other gay service members at that time. He resigned his commission and accepted an “Other Than Honorable” discharge, CBS News noted.

Becoming an icon and martyr in the LGBT+ community, he posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

The USNS Harvey Milk is currently undergoing maintenance work at a shipyard in Alabama.

Speaker Emerita and San Francisco Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi told CBS: “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,” she added.

Hegseth was confirmed in January, and he was quick to issue a directive ordering the Pentagon and the various branches of the military to stop having events connected to heritage and awareness months, such as Pride Month, Black History Month, and Women's History Month, arguing that it could damage unity.

The documents seen by CBS News say that Phelan should select a new name for the USNS Harvey Milk on Tuesday and that notifications of the new name would be sent to other Navy officials later in the week following a legal review.