Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the Navy to take the unusual step of renaming a ship currently named after a prominent gay rights figure, according to documents and sources.
Military.com reviewed a memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, which has the authority to name naval vessels, detailing plans to roll out the renaming of the oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk.
A defense official confirmed that the Navy is preparing to remove the ship’s current name, noting that Navy Secretary John Phelan was directed to take the action by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The official also acknowledged that the timing of the decision—during Pride Month—was deliberate.
The outlet noted that the memo said the renaming was being done so that there is “alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture,” apparently referencing President Donald Trump, Hegseth and Phelan.
Milk became one of the first openly gay elected officials in U.S. history during the 1970s, emerging as a key figure in the early gay civil rights movement. He was assassinated while serving on San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors.
According to the memo, the renaming of the ship was scheduled to be announced publicly on June 13.
While the new name for the USNS Harvey Milk was not disclosed, the memo indicated that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan plan to unveil it aboard the USS Constitution, the Navy’s oldest commissioned warship.
The USNS Harvey Milk is part of the John Lewis-class of oilers, a series of ships named in honor of prominent civil rights leaders and activists.
According to a report from CBS on Tuesday, the Navy is also weighing the possibility of renaming other vessels in the class, including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and USNS Harriet Tubman. Marshall and Ginsburg served as U.S. Supreme Court justices, while Tubman was a renowned abolitionist who led enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad.
Unlike the Harvey Milk, some of the ships under review have not yet been completed, Military.com reported.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who represents San Francisco, called that possibility “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 added.
While it is not entirely unprecedented for Navy ships to be renamed after construction and christening, such cases are rare and generally considered taboo within longstanding Navy tradition.
The most recent instance occurred in 2023, when the Navy renamed the cruiser USS Chancellorsville and the research vessel USNS Maury—both of which had ties to the Confederacy. They were renamed USS Robert Smalls and USNS Marie Tharp, respectively.
In contrast to the directive to rename the Harvey Milk, which came directly from Hegseth, the renaming of those two ships followed a recommendation from a congressionally mandated commission that was tasked with reviewing and addressing Confederate-linked names across the military. Democrats were in charge of the House at the time and the commission was not bipartisan.
The oiler was originally named after Milk in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus during the waning days of the Obama administration. According to USNI News, Milk came from a family with a legacy of naval service and was commissioned as a Navy officer in 1951.
He went on to serve as a diving officer aboard the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake during the Korean War. He left the service as a lieutenant junior grade in 1955 with a “less than honorable” discharge “after being officially questioned about his sexual orientation,” according to his official biography.
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