Navy renames Harvey Milk ship during Pride Month, sparks backlash over ‘erasure’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on June 27, 2025, that the USNS Harvey Milk would be renamed the USNS Oscar V. Peterson, stripping the Navy’s first vessel honoring an openly gay figure. Hegseth framed the move as depoliticizing ship naming, emphasizing Peterson’s Medal of Honor for heroism during WWII, where he saved the USS Neosho during the Battle of the Coral Sea, dying from severe burns.

Critics, including Democratic leaders, condemned the timing during Pride Month as a "shameful, vindictive erasure". The fleet oiler, originally christened in 2021 under a policy naming ships after civil rights icons, will now commemorate a non-political "warrior," aligning with the Trump administration’s push to eliminate DEI initiatives and restore "military ethos".

As California’s first openly gay elected official, he passed landmark anti-discrimination laws, united labor unions with marginalized communities, and led the defeat of Proposition 6 (the Briggs Initiative), which sought to ban gay teachers. His advocacy centered on empowering closeted individuals: "If a bullet enters my brain, let it shatter every closet door".

Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk, previously declined to upgrade his uncle’s discharge status to preserve the "reminder" of historical discrimination—a nuance overshadowed by Hegseth’s focus on Peterson’s combat sacrifice. While Republicans champion Peterson’s "warrior ethos," Democrats argue that Milk’s posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009) and global recognition, including schools, stamps, and a California state holiday, reflect his enduring impact on equality. The ship’s rechristening underscores a cultural clash: whether military honor should exclusively valorize battlefield heroism or also encompass leaders who expanded freedoms.