Pentagon to rename ‘gay’ US warship – media — RT World News

The upcoming renaming has not but been formally confirmed however was outlined in an inside memo, a number of protection sources instructed Navy.com and different media retailers on Tuesday.

The USNS Harvey Milk was named in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to honor Milk’s service and activism, and it was christened in 2021 by a transgender veteran.

Milk, who grew to become an LGBT icon as the primary brazenly homosexual official elected within the state of California, served within the US Navy within the Nineteen Fifties earlier than being discharged as a consequence of his sexual orientation. Lower than a 12 months after he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Milk was assassinated in 1978 by a fellow board member who had clashed with him over metropolis coverage.

The renaming aligns with the Trump administration’s efforts to reestablish a “warrior tradition” and take away DEI initiatives from federal businesses.

The officers, who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate inside deliberations, mentioned the ship’s new title has not but been chosen.

The choice, which comes throughout Delight Month, has drawn harsh criticism from Democrats, with former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemning the transfer as a “shameful, vindictive erasure” of civil rights figures’ legacies. California Governor Gavin Newsom known as the choice an indication of “Trump’s contempt for the very values our veterans struggle to guard.”

The Navy has not but formally introduced a brand new title for the vessel, and it stays unclear whether or not different John Lewis-class ships – all named after civil rights leaders – may even be renamed. Different ships within the fleet are named after African-American civil rights chief John Lewis, former Supreme Court docket Chief Justice Earl Warren, former US Legal professional Common and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and ladies’s rights activists and abolitionists Lucy Stone and Sojourner Fact.