Hegseth Orders Renaming Of Navy Ship Honoring LGBTQ+ Icon Harvey Milk: Reports | EUROtoday

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk honoring the slain LGBTQ+ rights icon and army veteran, based on studies.

The timing of the identify change, which was reported on the third day of Pride Month, was intentional, an individual accustomed to the plans advised Military.com, which was the primary to report Hegseth’s order.

When reached for remark, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wouldn’t verify the identify change however mentioned Hegseth is targeted on aligning army establishments with President Donald Trump’s views.

“Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos. Any potential renaming(s) will be announced after internal reviews are complete,” Parnell mentioned.

A memo obtained by Military.com reveals that the identify change is scheduled to be introduced June 13 aboard the USS Constitution.

Milk was the primary brazenly homosexual man elected to public workplace in California. He served lower than a 12 months on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors earlier than being assassinated in 1978. Prior to his profession in politics, Milk joined the Navy throughout the Korean War and served till 1955 when he was forcibly discharged due to his sexual orientation.

The USNS Harvey Milk was named in his honor in 2016, whereas President Barack Obama was nonetheless in workplace. It was one in all a number of ships named for civil rights icons that 12 months.

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who represents a lot of San Francisco in Congress, reacted to the reported identify change, calling it 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,” she mentioned in an announcement. “Instead, it is a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country.”

CBS News additionally reported Tuesday that the Navy is contemplating altering the names of ships honoring the late Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall, Harriet Tubman, Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, amongst different civil rights icons.