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.
Military.com first reported the news June 3.
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 “alignment with president [Donald Trump] and [Hegseth] objectives and [Navy Secretary John Phelan] priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture.”
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 "other than honorable" 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.
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.
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.
“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,” Pelosi stated. “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.
“As 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,” Pelosi added.
In a statement on Tuesday on Facebook, Stuart Milk, the gay nephew of Milk, wrote that he and his family are “heartbroken” 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’s family.
“I 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,” Stuart Milk wrote. “The pride that all the men and women on those ships – gay, straight, Black, white, Hispanic, commissioned officers and enlisted personnel – all of them, without exception, expressed and relayed to me, was a testament to the American spirit of patriotism and respect for our nation's collective history of growth.”
Stuart Milk added that renaming the ship won’t be silenced should the ship be renamed.
“Harvey Milk'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,” Stuart Milk wrote. “Rather 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's overriding message to us all – when he prophetically anticipated making the ultimate sacrifice: ‘Let the bullets that enter my brain, destroy every closet door.’ “You gotta give 'em hope.’”
Gay San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro district, stated, “It’s part and parcel with all the other bullying, trolling actions this administration has taken. They miss no opportunity to demonstrate that they’re not just a bunch of crooks and grifters; they’re mean too.”
Former Castro district supervisor Bevan Dufty, a gay man, stated he appreciated Pelosi’s 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.
“It was only a matter of time,” Dufty stated. “But it’s a bitter crop they are planting. Even though Harvey didn’t finish one year as supervisor, his legacy has shone bright globally since. This dime store defense secretary will be long forgotten and Harvey’s name will be restored in the years ahead. At the commissioning, both the navy secretary and ship’s captain acknowledged having gay sons. And that’s why we will prevail.”
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, “With all that’s 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’s name is not on a ship. Happy Pride.”
Tom Ammiano, the gay former San Francisco supervisor and state assemblymember, told the B.A.R., “Homophobia to this extent reveals his [Hegseth’s] closet mentality.”
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.
“Chickenshit 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,” Ammiano added.
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.
Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) stated, “The removal of Harvey Milk’s name from a naval vessel – during Pride Month, no less – is absolutely shameful. Harvey Milk was a hero. He was a veteran who served our country. He died for our community.
“Brave LGBTQ veterans worked for years to achieve the naming of a ship for Harvey,” Wiener continued. “Now, Trump and Hegseth are wiping it away due to straight-up bigotry. They’re determined to erase LGBTQ people from all aspects of public life.”
At the Milk ship's christening ceremony, then-Navy secretary Carlos Del Toro had noted he wanted to be there in order "to amend the wrongs of the past" in terms of the harassment LGBTQ servicemembers had faced.
The B.A.R. was on the ship after it sailed through the Golden Gate for the first time last year.
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.
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.
It wouldn't be until December 13, 2019 that the vessel's first cut ceremony took place at the General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company'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.
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's homophobic "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" 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.
“The calls I’m getting especially from veterans – it’s heartbreaking,” Murray Ramirez said when reached for comment by phone June 3. “If 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 – and because I'm quite the homo, when the draft came, I made a 4F – but I’ve always supported veterans, and especially during ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”
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.
“We’re the fabric of America,” Murray Ramirez said. “Harvey was not just about gay rights. … In honoring Milk you’re honoring a proud Jewish man, a man who understood diversity, African American civil rights, all of us. … How dare they? And who’s next?”
The U.S. Navy didn’t return a request for comment.
Updated, 6/4/25: 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.
