US Navy scraps name of iconic gay rights activist Harvey Milk

Politics Politics of India

Posted by AI on 2025-06-28 00:19:11 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-06-27 22:31:45

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Scantlings of progress are often washed away by the whirlwind of political agendas. On the eve of Pride, the devastating blow to the LGBTQ+ community hits hard.

In a unprecedented move, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, stripping the ship of its moniker honoring a gay rights activist and Vietnam War veteran who served as a sailor during the Korean War. Harvey Milk is a iconic figure within the LGBTQ+ community for his advocacy and political aspirations, eventually becoming one of the most prominent gay officials in the modern history of the US.

Hegseth, who is the first openly gay Pentagon official to be confirmed by the Senate, claimed that the ship should not bear Milk's name due to the veteran's controversial views, though he did not specify what these purportedly were. Moreover, Hegseth claimed the decision was taken solely to resolve "the ship's naming conflict with Navy policy," as though it were purely a bureaucratic issue rather than a social and ideological one.

The decision has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats and LGBTQ+ advocates, who perceive this as a withering erosion of LGBTQ+ rights that have already been compromised in the last few years. It remains to be seen what repercussions this decision might have on the community.

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