The Navy reportedly wants to rename the USNS Harvey Milk

The leaders of California said on Tuesday that the Trump administration is preparing to remove the name of Harvey Milk, the massacred gay rights leader Harvey Milk, and that the month of pride is preparing to be called a slap for the LGBTQ+ community.

In the 1970s, milk was elected as San Francisco Supervisor and became one of the first elected officials of the country. After being assassinated at the San Francisco Town Hall in 1978, he became a symbol of the gay rights movement, and the images of his face became synonymous with the struggle for gay rights.

Milk served in the Navy before becoming an activist and political figure, and LGBTQ+ defenders and service members fought for years to officially recognize the heritage by the navy.

Both of them CBS News And exit Military.com First Report In the afternoon of Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a lubricant built in San Diego as a part of a series of ships called civil rights leaders. It was released in 2021.

The Pentagon does not approve or reject the ship will be renamed.

In a statement to The Times, Sean Parnell, a spokesman for the Pentagon Chief, said Hegseth’s “The names added to everyone [Department of Defense] Installations and assets reflect the commander’s priorities, the history of our nation and the warrior morality ”and“ after the internal investigations are completed, any potential renovation (s) will be declared. “

The Pentagon does not say whether such a review has been initiated for USNS Harvey Milk. The navy sent questions to Pentagon.

The removal of the milk will be compatible with a wider push to eliminate the official acceptance of Queer rights by other leaders under Hegseth and Trump and other programs or messages that encourage diversity, equality and inclusion throughout the federal government.

The reconstruction of marine ships is rare, but the names proposed by the Congress Commission under the confederation were previously removed after a few years ago.

In addition to the USNS Harvey Milk, CBS and other exits reported that the authorities are considering renamed a number of other vessels in the Navy’s “John Lewis-Class”. Class, civil rights leader has long been a politician, and all boats have been named for civil rights leaders, activists or historical figures.

Other boats considered to rename according to these sales points include USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, Usns Cesar Chavez and Usns Medgar Ever.

Leaders in California, where milk is generally greeted as a hero, accelerated the idea of ​​robbing his name from the ship.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, Trump’s social media platform X’s “The attack on veterans reached a new low level. “

Trump and Hegseth also issued a comprehensive prohibition on transsexual people serving in the army.

“Harvey Milk was not just a civil rights symbol – the commander was a Korean war veteran called ‘extraordinary’.

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) Repeated Newsom With his own interpretation about x.

“Our army is the most powerful of the world – but this vindictive movement does not strengthen our national security or ‘warrior’ morality,” he wrote. “A shameful, justified erase of those who fight to destroy the obstacles of everyone to chase the American dream.”

The State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who was a homosexual and once representing the same area as the milk in the San Francisco Supervisors Board, said in an interview with Times, “Trump’s systematic campaign to eliminate LGBTQ people from public life.

“They want us to go, go back to the closet, be a part of public life, Wiener said Wiener. And we don’t go anywhere.

After graduating from the university, milk joined the navy in 1951 and was deployed in San Diego. Accordingly Harvey Milk FoundationIn 1955, Lieutenant Junior resigned in the rank of class. “After officially questioned about sexual orientation”.

In 1972, he moved to San Francisco, opened a camera shop on Castro Street and quickly entered politics – the growing local homosexual community gathered to fight for rights and to establish strategic alliances with other groups, including organized workmanship and the city’s Great Asia and Pacific Islands community.

Milk was elected to the Supervisory Board in 1977 and pioneered efforts to overcome the 1978 voting compass initiative, which will prevent gay and lesbian people from teaching throughout the state.

In the same year, Milk was assassinated by former supervisor Dan White, along with Mayor George Moscone. His killing strengthened his status as a symbol of homosexual rights movement.

Wiener calls the milk as a “an absolute hero who died for our community and deserves the honor of having a sea ship named.

“A group of LGBTQ veterans have worked for years and years to reach the goal of naming a ship for Harvey, Harvey, and to take it so comfortably throughout the month of pride, Düşün he said.

To remove the name means more than rubbing a sheriff from a ship, Wiener said, “Especially with the attacks on our community and many young LGBTQ people [seeing] very negativity against our community. ”

“Young Queer was a very visible role model for people, and he gave people hope in a way that he had never come from any high profile Queer leader and was killed for our community because of his visibility and leadership, Wie said Wiener and today for a young person,“ To see the name of a homosexual man on the side of a military ship is very powerful.

US officials first announced in 2016 that one ship will be named for milk with others in the Lewis class.

In an event that pointed out the beginning of the construction of the ship in 2019, Milk’s nephew Stuart Milk said, “We congratulate everyone, not only the US will tolerate everyone”, not only the US will tolerate everyone ”after his uncle had sent a global incorporation message”.