WASHINGTON – Retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis mentioned Friday that he disagrees with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering the Navy to take the uncommon step of renaming the USNS Harvey Milk as a result of Milk was homosexual.
“I am scratching my head about renaming the USS USNS … Harvey Milk,” Stavridis mentioned on SiriusXM’s “The Michael Smerconish Program.”
“Because Harvey Milk was gay, we all know that. But today, gay sailors serve openly and with a great deal of pride in the U.S. military. I know many who are gay and are very competent, war-fighting sailors,” Stavridis mentioned. “So when [the] secretary of defense says, ‘Hey, I’m renaming this in order to restore the warrior ethos,’ I just don’t get that at all.”
Milk, who was a San Francisco politician within the Seventies and the primary overtly homosexual man elected to public workplace in California, served within the Navy for 4 years throughout the Korean Warfare. He was compelled to resign in 1955 reasonably than face a court-martial for being homosexual. A trailblazer within the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 and honored with a Navy ship named after him in 2016.
Hegseth’s order is uncommon, and its timing — coinciding with Satisfaction Month in June — was intentional, per a Army.com report.
Requested for remark about Hegseth timing his order with Satisfaction Month, a Protection Division spokesperson shared an announcement from chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell that didn’t truly reply the query.
“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. Any potential renaming(s) will be announced after internal reviews are complete,” Parnell mentioned in his assertion.
Requested once more for touch upon the timing of Hegseth’s order to take away Milk’s identify from the Navy ship, the Protection Division spokesperson mentioned solely, “I do not have any additional information to provide.”
Stavridis, who served because the commander of the U.S. Southern Command from 2006 to 2009, and as commander of the U.S. European Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 2009 to 2013, recounted how homosexual troopers have served in militaries for hundreds of years.
“I’m Greek American. Arguably the greatest general in history, Alexander the Great, was gay,” Stavridis mentioned. “And oh, by the way, [gay] people serve at the highest level of the U.S. Cabinet today, like secretary of the treasury, who I think is doing a pretty good job with a tough hand of cards. [Scott] Bessent is openly gay.”
“So I don’t get it on why we need to rename this ship, this moment, and also to do it during Pride Month,” he added. “Just as kind of a shot across the bow. … I don’t agree with it.”
Another person who doesn’t agree with that is former longtime Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who tore into Hegseth over the transfer.
“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,” Pelosi mentioned in an announcement.
“Our military is the most powerful in the world — but this spiteful move does not strengthen our national security or the ‘warrior’ ethos,” she mentioned.
Homosexual, lesbian and bisexual folks have been overtly serving within the U.S. army since 2011, when President Barack Obama signed a invoice into regulation repealing the army’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” coverage. President Joe Biden lifted a ban on transgender folks overtly serving within the army in 2021, however President Donald Trump reinstated the ban this 12 months.
