As part of the Trump administration’s ongoing purge of DEI policies, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the U.S. Navy to rename a ship that had been named for controversial homosexual-rights activist Harvey Milk, who served as a sailor during the Korean War.
Miltary.com reports that Navy Secretary John Phelan put together a small team to rename the replenishment oiler and that a new name is expected this month, which culturally is know as “Pride Month,” in celebration of various sexual proclivities.
The change was laid out in an internal memo officials said defended the action as a move to align with President Donald Trump and Hegseth’s objectives to “reestablish the warrior culture.” It also comports with the president’s order to purge the federal government of so-called DEI policies.
“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,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on the renaming. “Any potential renaming(s) will be announced after internal reviews are complete.”
The oiler Harvey Milk was named in 2016 and christened in 2021. According to Military.com, the ship is operated by Military Sealift Command with a crew of about 125 civilian mariners. The Navy says it conducted its first resupply mission at sea in fall 2024 while operating in the Virginia Capes.
Milk served for four years in the Navy before being discharged over his sexual behavior. He later served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and sponsored a bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations, housing and employment. It passed, and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone signed it into law.
On Nov. 27, 1978, Milk and Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a former city supervisor who cast the sole vote against Milk’s bill.
The activist was not without his detractors, however, partly based on his sexual activity with minors. A 2009 column at WND explains some of the sordid details of Milk’s life, including as a predator of young males, as documented by homosexual author Randy Shilts in his 1982 biography of Milk, “The Mayor of Castro Street.”
Wrote Peter Sprigg:
“Milk … exploited his time in the Navy during his political career – by lying about it, claiming falsely that he had received a dishonorable discharge for his homosexuality. Milk ‘knew the story would make good copy,’ according to Shilts. ‘Maybe people will read it, feel sorry for me and then vote for me,’ Milk told one campaign manager.”
Shilts reports that Milk, who had his own apartment off base while in the Navy, would pick up hitchhiking sailors by offering them a bed to sleep in. “The guests often would not know that Milk’s apartment had only one bed until they walked in the door,” wrote Shilts.
“The information Shilts provides about Milk’s sexual partners is revealing about the nature of male homosexual life in America,” writes Sprigg. “Milk’s first long-term lover, Joe, had his ‘introduction to gay life’ when he performed sex acts upon men in a movie theatre for money – at age 9. Milk’s next lover, Craig, had been arrested after having sex with a 40-year-old man – when Craig was 14. He met Milk when he was 17 – ‘[I]t would be to such boyish-looking men in their late teens and early 20s that Milk would be attracted for the rest of his life,’ Shilts reports. Another lover, Jack, moved in with Milk when he was 16 and Milk was 33. Jack attempted suicide several times, and once when he physically attacked Milk, ‘Harvey literally tied him up and threw him in a closet.’”
Sprigg notes that when then-President Obama posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk, “it may mark the first time in history that the nation’s highest civilian award has been granted primarily on the basis of someone’s sex life.”
