U.S. Navy to name ship after Harvey Milk
USNS Harvey Milk will be one of several naval vessels named after civil rights leaders
The U.S. Navy will name a ship after LGBT rights icon and former San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, according to a leaked congressional notification obtained by the U.S. Naval Institute News.
The notification, signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus on July 14, indicates that there are plans to name a Military Sealift Command fleet oiler as the USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206). The ship is the second of the John Lewis-class oilers being built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Francisco. All of the ships in the John Lewis-class will be named after civil rights leaders, including Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, Robert F. Kennedy, women’s rights activist and abolitionist Lucy Stone, and Sojourner Truth.
As the document was leaked without prior approval, the Secretary of the Navy’s office will not be releasing any additional details until the announcement is made official.
Milk, who is best known for his role in the LGBT rights movement, came from a Navy family and joined the service himself in 1951. He served as a diving officer in San Diego during the Korean War, and was later honorably discharged as a lieutenant junior grade. After leaving the Navy, Milk became active in politics, mounting several campaigns for political office.
In 1978, he was eventually elected to the San Francisco board of supervisors, becoming the first openly gay politician elected to office in California. He was also involved in defeating the Briggs Initiative, a ballot proposition that would have required California public schools to fire any teachers or employees who identified as LGBT and even heterosexuals who sympathized with LGBT rights.
He was assassinated later that year by fellow Supervisor Dan White, but has remained an icon within the LGBT movement to this day.
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