By Wallace White  |  The Daily Caller News Foundation

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly weighing ordering the Navy to rename an oiler ship bearing the name of a controversial gay rights activist who allegedly had a relationship with a 16-year-old boy, Military.com reported Tuesday, citing internal documents and an anonymous official.

The USNS Harvey Milk, named after a San Francisco gay rights activist who was the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, is reportedly being prepared to be stripped of its name by Hegseth’s orders to Navy Secretary John Phelan, according to Military.com.

Documents reviewed by Military.com reportedly show that the renaming is being done to bring the Navy in “alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture.”

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

The USNS Harvey Milk debuted its new name in August 2016 during the waning days of the Obama administration, according to USNI News. Milk served in the Navy from 1951 to 1955 as a diving officer during the Korean War on the submarine rescue ship Kittiwaki.

The naming of the ship generated controversy due to 33-year-old Milk’s documented relationship with 16-year-old Jack Galen McKinley, with the American Family Association describing Milk as a “homosexual predator” in reaction to the 2016 renaming. Milk allegedly took in McKinley as a lover when he moved to San Francisco as a minor, according to a biography on Milk’s life titled “The Mayor of Castro Street.”

McKinley later died of suicide in 1980 after numerous struggles with mental health issues, according to the biography, while Milk was shot and killed in 1978 by Dan White, who was a rival of his in San Francisco City Hall at the time. Milk remains a revered figure among LGBT activists.

Hegseth has made a major push to root out left-wing initiatives in the armed services, such as LGBT initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusion projects and related content.

First published on The Daily Caller

Hegseth Orders Navy to Strip Name of Gay Rights Icon Harvey Milk from Ship (Military.com)

By Konstantin Toropin | Military.com

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to take the rare step of renaming a ship, one that bears the name of a gay rights icon, documents and sources show.

Military.com reviewed a memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy — the official who holds the power to name Navy ships — that showed the sea service had come up with rollout plans for the renaming of the oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk.

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. The official also said that the timing of the announcement — occurring during Pride month — was intentional.

Military.com reached out to Hegseth’s office for comment on the move but did not immediately receive a response.

However, the memo reviewed by Military.com noted that the renaming was being done so that there is “alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture,” apparently referencing President Donald Trump, Hegseth and Phelan.

Milk became one of the first openly gay elected officials in U.S. history during the 1970s, making him an icon of the nascent gay civil rights movement, and was killed while serving on the board of supervisors in San Francisco.

The renaming news was slated to become public June 13, according to the memo.

A new name for the Harvey Milk was not given but, according to the memo, Hegseth and Phelan are planning to announce the new name aboard the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned Navy ship.. . . (read rest)

👍👍👍🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Harvey Milk was an unrepentant pederast and all-around reprobate. It was wrong to name the ship after him, and, at a purely practical level, it was not helping the Navy beat the accusations! pic.twitter.com/rHRnGAv2bt

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) June 3, 2025

Great news. Harvey Milk was a creep who molested 16 year old boys. He contributed nothing of value to society and should not be honored or remembered at all. https://t.co/qcQgDIs0y7

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 3, 2025

Maybe it’s me being a prude but I think a guy who was buddy buddy with Jim Jones like Harvey Milk was, going so far as to call Jones “A man of the highest character” in a letter to Jimmy Carter, doesn’t deserve to have his name anywhere near a U.S. Navy ship. Great move here https://t.co/vIWiLAqbcy pic.twitter.com/UXokmmcqXt

— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) June 3, 2025

Harvey Milk was 34 years old when he began drugging, grooming and raping 16 year old Jack Galen McKinley.

Obama’s Navy Secretary Ray Mabus (pictured below) thought it appropriate to honor Milk by naming a Navy ship after him.

That’s coming to an end.
We voted for that. pic.twitter.com/B7HUdvL3w3

— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) June 3, 2025

Been on this app since 2007. This is my greatest trophy.

Had it framed. It hangs in my office.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present: Ray Mabus, the worst SECNAV in a century and the man personally responsible for naming a Navy ship the USNS Harvey Milk. pic.twitter.com/yiWA6nfhrO

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) June 4, 2025

Harvey Milk was a notorious San Francisco pedophile who preyed on young teen boys, and who also helped his close confidante and con man Jim Jones to swindle and lure hundreds of poor black families to move to Jonestown, where Harvey’s friend Jim killed them all after subjecting… https://t.co/8yqeOeZPiy

— Peachy Keenan (@KeenanPeachy) June 3, 2025

Harvey Milk was a pedophile (much like you) who served only 4 years in the military. This is the right thing. https://t.co/2tLUaZbCcE

— Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) June 4, 2025

USS Harvey Milk To Be Renamed ‘USS No Homo’ https://t.co/vI2Vz5aAtJ pic.twitter.com/WhlwEfUh4H

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) June 4, 2025

Team Trump Ends the USNS Harvey Milk
Our military ought not be a canvas for the latest social revolutionary fad. We need an America united by our reverence for our citizen warriors.

By Ben Shapiro

This week, the Department of Defense made an unprecedented move: They renamed a ship, originally christened the USNS Harvey Milk. According to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s memo, the goal was to ensure “alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture.”

And predictably, the radical left went insane. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose district encompasses San Francisco — the home of Harvey Milk — called it “a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country … a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream.”

Part of this supposed legacy was the creation, in 2018, of the John Lewis-class replenishment oilers, designated to be named after various civil rights leaders, including Harriet Tubman, Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

But this idea is rather stupid in the first place.

First off, these figures are not exactly anonymous. There are currently two public schools named after Milk (one in San Francisco and one in New York), despite the fact that he was a scurrilous figure who had sex with a 16-year-old runaway while he was in his 30s and rather prominently supported murderous cult leader Jim Jones. A film was made about his life starring Sean Penn, who won an Oscar for the hagiography.

Traditionally, U.S. Navy ships have been named after places (USS Ohio) or presidents (USS Ronald Reagan) or military heroes (USS John Paul Jones) or ideas (USS Enterprise or USS Hope) or even Native American tribes (USS Seminole).

The reason for these naming conventions is obvious: They are not polarizing. If you name a ship after John F. Kennedy or Doris Miller, you’re not offending anyone; we can all acknowledge JFK’s presidency and Doris Miller’s World War II heroism.

But that’s not what happened with the USS Harvey Milk. When the name was announced, radical state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-Calif., explained, “When Harvey Milk served in the military, he couldn’t tell anyone who he truly was. Now our country is telling the men and women who serve, and the entire world, that we honor and support people for who they are.”

That, of course, is a strange proposition for the United States military, which is fundamentally not about honoring people for “who they are” but for what they do — and given that the topic is ship-naming, what they do ought to be at least tangentially related to the question of military readiness.

The Trump administration’s renaming is part and parcel of a broader shift away from the censorious wokeness that crippled military recruitment and led to an astonishing diminishment in the perception of our military strength.

It turns out that young men don’t really want to join a military that is more focused on cultural signaling than lethal efficiency — and our enemies are far more sanguine about a military that focuses on which interest groups to placate than a military that focuses on victorious deadliness.

Hegseth, in short, is right: If the purpose of branding is to establish a vision of the thing being branded, we are far better off with a USNS Daniel Daly — a ship named after one of the most decorated Marines in American history — than with a USNS Harvey Milk.

What’s more, the Trump administration’s refreshing willingness to say the obvious is a credit to the White House and the secretary of Defense.

No, our military ought not be a canvas for the latest social revolutionary fad. We don’t need a USNS RuPaul.

We need an America united by our reverence for our citizen warriors — and that means honoring the universal icons who remind us of their bravery and sacrifice.