Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth Announces Removal Of Gay Rights Hero Harvey Milk’s Name From Navy Ship, Pelosi Calls Move ‘Shameful’

by Riley GoldmanJune 9, 2025, 9:29 pmNews >

As celebrations begin to commemorate Pride Month in the U.S., Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the naval vessel honoring gay rights activist Harvey Milk is to be renamed.

The announcement takes the Trump administration’s removal of DEI initiatives throughout the government one step further, removing not just Milk’s name but also the possible removal of the names of civil rights activists and women from vessels.

Trump previously removed the black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Q. Brown.

These actions have already been taken in scrubbing the names of women and people of color from DOD websites, along with eliminating books that mention DEI-related historical figures from service academies.

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“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,” Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement. “Any potential renaming(s) will be announced after internal reviews are complete.”

Other ships in the class include USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Cesar Chavez and USNS Dolores Huerta. According to one official, there is no timeline to rename the other ships.

Milk served in the Navy before his political career, where he joined the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was later assassinated, along with Mayor George Moscone, in 1978 by a former board member.

Hegseth’s plan to erase the names of these groundbreaking historical figures from ships is his latest move to eliminate any trace of diversity, equity and inclusion in the Defense Department.

His previous moves faced great scrutiny, especially the move to strip all mentions of key figures from military websites. This included baseball Hall of Famer and World War II veteran Jackie Robinson. The backlash led to Hegseth reinstating some web pages and admitting to an error by the department.

California politicians, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Gov. Gavin Newsom, publicly criticized the planned renaming.

Pelosi called the decision a “shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream” in a statement.

“Our military is the most powerful in the world – but this spiteful move does not strengthen our national security or the ‘warrior’ ethos. Instead, it is a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country,” Pelosi said, asking the Navy to “reconsider this egregious decision.”

“Stripping his name from a Navy ship won’t erase his legacy as an American icon,” Newsom said in a statement, “but it does reveal Trump’s contempt for the very values our veterans fight to protect.”