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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth departs the U.S. Capitol Building on June 26, 2025, in Washington, DC.; US Navy portrait of then Ens. Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk, the LGBTQ+ civil rights icon, was discharged from the Navy for his sexual orientation.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed the Navy will strip LGBTQ+ rights leader Harvey Milk’s name from a vessel.
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“The Department of the Navy is renaming the fleet replenishment oiler, formerly known as the USNS Harvey Milk, to the USNS Oscar V. Peterson,” he said in a video announcement. “We are taking the politics out of ship naming.”
The USNS Harvey Milk was the second of the John Lewis-class replenishment oiler ships named for civil rights leaders — apparently the so-called politics Hegseth was referring to.
While some may suggest stripping the name of a revered civil rights leader, during Pride month no less, will be seen as an extremely political move, Hegseth claimed it was those deployed to serve on the ship can now do so with pride.
“We're not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration,” Hegseth said. “Instead, we're renaming the ship after a United States Navy Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, as it should be.
“People want to be proud of the ship they're sailing in.”
Petersen, the new namesake for the vessel, served as a Navy chief and died during the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942. After Japanese bombers damaged his ship, a mortally wounded Petersen closed the bulkhead stop valves to keep the ship operational. He earned the Medal posthumously.
But much of the outrage since news of a renaming broke in early June hasn’t surrounded whether other Navy veterans’ names belong on ships but whether Milk’s name should be taken off of one.
Milk, a San Francisco Supervisor and one of the nation’s first openly gay elected officials, was assassinated in 1978 alongside San Francisco Mayor Dan White. Before holding elected office, he served in the Navy from 1951 to 1955.
Out U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen questioned Hegseth in a congressional hearing about the leaked renaming earlier this month if Milk deserved the nation’s thanks for his service. Hegseth replied, “If his service was deemed honorable, yes.”
Milk received an “other than honorable” discharge in the 1950s at a time when gay men were banned from serving in the military.
