Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly ordered the USNS Harvey Milk to be renamed
The US Navy has been directed to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a replenishment oiler named after the slain homosexual rights activist and Navy veteran, as a part of a broader initiative by President Donald Trump to remove range, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) references inside the navy.
The upcoming renaming has not but been formally confirmed however was outlined in an inner memo, a number of protection sources informed Army.com and different US media on Tuesday.
The USNS Harvey Milk was named in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to honor Milk’s service and activism, and it was christened in 2021 by a transgender veteran.
Milk, who turned an American LGBT icon as the primary brazenly homosexual official elected within the state of California, served within the US Navy within the Fifties earlier than being discharged on account of his sexual orientation. Lower than a 12 months after he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Milk was assassinated in 1978 by a fellow board member who had clashed with him over metropolis coverage.
The renaming aligns with the Trump administration’s efforts to reestablish a “warrior tradition” and take away DEI initiatives from federal businesses.
The officers, who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate inner deliberations, stated the ship’s new title had not but been chosen.
The choice, coming throughout Pleasure Month, has drawn harsh criticism from Democrats, with former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemning the transfer as a “shameful, vindictive erasure” of civil rights figures’ legacies. California Governor Gavin Newsom additionally slammed the choice as an indication of “Trump’s contempt for the very values our veterans combat to guard.”
The Navy has not but formally introduced a brand new title for the vessel, and it stays unclear whether or not different John Lewis-class ships – all named after civil rights leaders – will even be renamed. Different ships within the fleet are named after African-American civil rights chief John Lewis, former Supreme Court docket Chief Justice Earl Warren, former US Lawyer Common and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and ladies’s rights activists and abolitionists Lucy Stone and Sojourner Reality.
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