Pentagon chooses new name for Navy ship named after homosexual predator
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday announced that an oiler ship named by the Obama administration after a gay rights activist and predator will be renamed after a World War II war hero.
In August 2016, then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus named a ship after Harvey Milk, a Navy veteran of the Korean War who became a gay rights icon in the 1970s. The first openly gay man elected to public office in California, Milk has been described as a “homosexual predator” for having an intimate relationship with 16-year-old Jack Galen McKinley when Milk was 33. Milk was assassinated in 1978.
On Friday, Hegseth said the Navy is “taking the politics out of ship naming” and will rename the USNS Harvey Milk after Oscar Peterson, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in 1942.
“I’m pleased to officially announce that the Department of the Navy is renaming the replenishment oil formally known as the USNS Harvey Milk to the USNS Oscar V. Peterson,” Hegseth said. “We are taking the politics out of ship-naming; we’re not renaming the ship to anything political; this is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration.”
“Instead, we’re renaming the ship after a United States Navy Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, as it should be,” he continued. “People want to be proud of the ship they’re sailing in, and so we’re renaming it after a chief, a Navy chief, that during the battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, Chief Watertender Peterson led a repair party on the U.S.S. Neosho. The ship was severely damaged by Japanese dive-bombers and the entire repair party was either killed or severely wounded. Peterson himself was gravely wounded, yet he managed to single-handedly close the bulkhead stop valves, thereby helping to keep the ship operational.”
Peterson suffered third-degree burns and died six days after his heroic actions. His wife and two children survived him.
“In performing his historic actions and heroic actions, Peterson received additional injuries, and burns, which tragically resulted in his death, but his spirit of self-sacrifice and concern for his crewmates was in keeping with the finest traditions of the Navy,” concluded Hegseth. “And for his heroic actions, Oscar Peterson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. So I would like to officially welcome the USNS Oscar V. Peterson to the Navy’s Vessel Register.”
The USNS Harvey Milk is one of several John Lewis-class oilers, which are ships named after civil rights icons. The Navy is also considering renaming other John Lewis-class oilers such as the USNS Harriet Tubman, the USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the USNS Thurgood Marshall.
According to Military.com, the announcement was deliberately scheduled for June, which the Left has institutionalized as “Pride Month.” On Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom invoked Harvey Milk in a Pride Month greeting:
This Pride Month, we're reminded of Harvey Milk's immortal call that "hope will never be silent." Hard-won LGBTQ rights are under attack across the nation, fueled by attempts to sow division and hatred. Make no mistake: California is proud of who you are.
Democrats slam the DoD’s ‘disgusting’ decision
The decision to rename the USNS Harvey Milk has incensed Democrat leaders.
“Erasing Harvey Milk’s name is disgusting, blatant discrimination—and during Pride Month to boot,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “He served the U.S. Navy and his country honorably, and he was assassinated while serving the public and fighting for LGBTQ+ rights. Hegseth should be ashamed of himself and reverse this immediately.”
Former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also registered her outrage in a statement.
“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,” she said. “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.
“As the rest of us are celebrating the joy of Pride Month, it is my hope that the Navy will reconsider this egregious decision and continue to recognize the extraordinary contributions of Harvey Milk, a Veteran himself, and all Americans who forged historic progress for our nation.”
