According to Military.com article, a memorandum from Hegseth ordered the Office of the Secretary of the Navy to rename the oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk.
A defense official told the military news website it was no accident Hegseth timed the announcement to coincide with so-called “Pride Month," which began June 1.
Milk, who was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, received a "less than honorable" discharge after being questioned about his sexual orientation.
In the early years of the gay rights movement, Milk emerged as a homosexual activist in San Francisco and became the city’s first openly homosexual county supervisor. One year after that election, he was gunned down by fellow politician Dan White in 1978 along with the city’s liberal mayor, George Moscone.
Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former U.S. Navy chaplain, is familiar with Milk’s biography. The late activist, he points out, was accused of preying on teenage boys, including a troubled 16-year-old named Jack McKinley.
The teen boy, who moved in for a time with 33-year-old Milk, committed suicide two years after Milk was killed.
“And nobody like that should be honored by naming a navy ship after them,” he says. “It's an insult to people of faith. It's an insult to the integrity and the inclusivity of honorable people who served their country."
The decision to name the oiler after Milk dates back to President Obama and the second term of his administration. Back then, a radicalized Pentagon was openly welcoming open homosexuals and opened up frontline combat roles to women.
At the same time, the Navy had also grounded two-thirds of its attack aircraft due to repair delays and a lack of spare parts.
In the memo to the Navy, Secretary Hegseth said renaming the oiler aligns with a plan by President Trump and Hegseth for "reestablishing the warrior culture" in the armed forces.
At his confirmation hearing, in January, Hegseth told lawmakers Trump ordered him to "bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense."
Among the military branches, the U.S. Navy has long endured a reputation for attracting homosexuals to wear a Navy uniform.
Most recently, in 2023, the Navy used a homosexual drag queen as part of a recruitment campaign for new sailors. The sailor, a Yeoman Second Class nicknamed "Harpy Daniels," identifies as "non-binary" and goes by "they" pronouns.
The Navy reported at the time it was ending the fiscal year with a 16% drop, about 6,000 sailors, in new recruits.
