U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and longtime LGBTQ+ ally, tried to pass a resolution urging reconsideration of the decision to strip Harvey Milk’s name from a Navy ship — but he was blocked by a single Republican.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the renaming of the USNS Harvey Milk and possibly the renaming of other ships named for civil rights leaders. The timing of the Harvey Milk announcement during LGBTQ+ Pride Month was intentional, according to Department of Defense sources.
Schiff introduced his resolution Thursday. “The Navy has seen fit to honor these civil rights icons – who spent their lives fighting for the rights of the American people – by naming ships in their honor,” Schiff said on the Senate floor. “We learned this week, however, that the secretary of Defense does not share the view that these leaders are worthy of the honor of recognition that the Navy has bestowed upon them.”
“I suspect it is no coincidence that the Pentagon released the news of renaming the USNS Harvey Milk at the beginning of Pride Month and while Washington, D.C., hosts WorldPride,” Schiff continued. “So today I offer a simple resolution with my California colleague Alex Padilla. It says that the Senate believes that it is important and worthwhile to honor civil rights leaders by naming ships after them, and it expresses the Senate’s view that the Department of Defense should not seek to remove these names.”
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He offered some information about Milk. Milk served in the Navy in the early 1950s but was forced to resign with an “other than honorable” discharge because of being gay. He went on to become a notable activist and was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, becoming the first out gay elected official in California. He was assassinated the following year, along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, by a former city supervisor, Dan White.
The effort to rename the USNS Harvey Milk fits in with the Trump administration’s attempts to erase women, African Americans, and others from the nation’s history, Schiff said. It’s hard to see how any of this promotes the so-called warrior culture that Hegseth says he endorses, the senator added.
The ship is part of a class of oilers, which refuel other Navy ships, named for the late John Lewis, a noted civil rights activist and longtime member of Congress. Ships under construction or contract in the class will be named for figures including labor leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and abolitionists Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman.
“The United States Senate should not stand by silently while U.S. civil rights icons from John Lewis to Cesar Chavez to Dolores Huerta are erased from Navy as others are erased from websites,” Schiff said. He asked for unanimous consent to approve his resolution.
But one Republican senator stood in the way. Ted Budd of North Carolina, who has a poor record on LGBTQ+ rights, objected, saying the naming of ships should be up to those who serve in the Navy and not a “top-down affair” with orders coming from Congress. The previous administration took a top-down approach, breaking with Navy customs and traditions, he said.
The USNS Harvey Milk was launched in November 2021, when Joe Biden was president. It was the first military ship named after an out gay person. Milk’s name was selected in 2016 by Ray Mabus, secretary of the Navy under President Barack Obama.
Budd’s objection killed the chance of unanimous consent.
Schiff spoke again after Budd, noting two others who were set to be honored by having ships named after them: Joshua Goldberg, the first Jewish rabbi to volunteer for service in World War II, and Thompson Parham, the first African American sailor promoted to captain.
“These are inspiring people,” Schiff said. “It tells young people that the United States welcomes all of them.” His resolution would not force the Navy to keep the names but would merely express the Senate’s views, he said. “It says that the individuals who have been named are worthy of that honor and distinction,” he concluded.