The US Navy has been directed to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a replenishment oiler named after the slain gay rights activist and Navy veteran, as part of a broader initiative by President Donald Trump to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) references within the military.
The upcoming renaming has not yet been officially confirmed but was outlined in an internal memo, multiple defense sources told Military.com and other media outlets 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 became an LGBT icon as the first openly gay official elected in the state of California, served in the US Navy in the 1950s before being discharged due to his sexual orientation. Less than a year 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 city policy.
The renaming aligns with the Trump administration’s efforts to reestablish a “warrior culture” and remove DEI initiatives from federal agencies.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the ship’s new name has not yet been chosen.
The decision, which comes during Pride Month, has drawn harsh criticism from Democrats, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemning the move as a “shameful, vindictive erasure” of civil rights figures’ legacies. California Governor Gavin Newsom called the decision a sign of “Trump’s contempt for the very values our veterans fight to protect.”
The Navy has not yet officially announced a new name for the vessel, and it remains unclear whether other John Lewis-class ships – all named after civil rights leaders – will also be renamed. Other ships in the fleet are named after African-American civil rights leader John Lewis, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, former US Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and women’s rights activists and abolitionists Lucy Stone and Sojourner Truth.
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