'Gratuitously petty': Hegseth ripped over 'spiteful move' to rename USNS Harvey Milk

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is kicking off Pride Month by ordering the renaming of the USNS Harvey Milk, one of a number of ships in the John Lewis-class, named for the assassinated LGBTQ civil rights leader who served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in the 1950s.

“A defense official confirmed that the Navy was making preparations to strip the ship of its name but noted that Navy Secretary John Phelan was ordered to do so by Hegseth,” Military.com first reported. “The official also said that the timing of the announcement — occurring during Pride month — was intentional.”

The Navy is also considering renaming ships named after other prominent civil rights leaders, including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez, and USNS Medgar Evers, according to a report by CBS News.

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Name changes of ships in service are “exceptionally rare,” CBS added.

“The step furthers Hegseth’s agenda to stomp out DEI initiatives at the Pentagon, which has included removing books from service academies and scrubbing some mentions of women and people of color in the armed services from DOD websites,” reported Politico, noting that the expected date for the renaming is around June 13.

“The reported decision by the Trump Administration to change the names of the USNS Harvey Milk and other ships in the John Lewis-class is a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream,” Democratic Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi told CBS News. “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.”

Milk is considered a “Person of Exceptional Prominence” by the National Archives.

Former CNN national security reporter Barbara Starr blasted the decision.

“This is a bad day for the @USNavy,” the iconic journalist wrote. “Where on earth is the heritage of a force that has long honored, fought, and fallen for all Americans. What is the war fighting reason for this?”

Other critics clammed Secretary Hegseth and his decision.

“That this would happen at the start of Pride is intentional,” observed writer Charlotte Clymer, a former press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.

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“The act is both gratuitously petty as well as seriously and dangerously wrong,” wrote attorney and former NAACP CEO and President Cornell William Brooks. “This erasing of Harvey Milk’s name and legacy perpetuates the notion that members of the LGBTQ community are lesser citizens, lesser human beings, & less patriotic.”

The progressive PAC VoteVets in a lengthy statement called it “a calculated act of disrespect,” and said it is “about forcing out those who don’t fit Hegseth’s 1980s action figure fantasy of service.”

“If any junior officer showed this level of pettiness, contempt for honorable service, and lack of focus on mission, they’d be ridiculed by peers, benched by superiors, and despised by their Troops,” the statement continued.”

“To erase his name now – during Pride Month – is no innocent bureaucratic decision. It’s part of Hegseth’s broader campaign to purge the military of anyone who doesn’t fit his narrow, outdated vision. He’s working overtime to create a hostile environment that drives out women, people of color, LGBTQ+ Troops – anyone who doesn’t conform to his 1980s action figure fantasy of military service. That doesn’t make us stronger. It makes us weaker. Less unified. Less lethal. Less prepared to meet the real threats we face.”

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