Navy to Name a Ship after Gay Rights Activist Harvey Milk

Josh Luckenbaugh | July 29, 2016
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According to multiple reports, the Navy has decided to name a ship after former Naval officer and gay rights icon Harvey Milk, the first time such an honor has been bestowed on a known homosexual. 

United States Naval Institute News secured a Congressional notification signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus on July 14 which said that Mabus intended to name one of the new John Lewis-class oilers after Milk. Mabus's office has refused to make further comment on the decision until the official announcement. 

Milk served in the Navy as a diving officer on a submarine rescue ship during the Korean War, receiving an honorable discharge in 1955 as a lieutenant junior grade. From then on, he was elected to the San Francisco board of supervisors, the first openly gay politician to spend time in office in California. Milk was assassinated in 1978 by former colleague Dan White. 

There has been a push to have a ship named after Milk since the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in 2011, which prevented anyone openly gay or lesbian from joining the military. However, the reveal that the Navy is actually going to name a ship after him has received mixed reactions. 

"We have just reached the point recently where LGBT people can serve openly in the military, and what better message can there be of that than this ship? It’s a very fitting tribute to a man whose primary goal was for people to be authentic and not have to wear a mask," Stuart Milk, Harvey's cousin and the co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Retired Navy Commander and open lesbian Zoe Dunning echoed these sentiments: "Everyone who serves on that ship over the ship’s life time will know who Harvey Milk is and his contribution to history."

A former intern of Milk's, Cleve Jones, seemed less certain about associating Milk with his military past:

I have no idea what Harvey would think of this. He has been dead a long time. I can tell you I have mixed feelings. It is obviously an indication that gay people are more accepted than they were when he lived. And I think he would be glad of that. But he did not like war.

"It’s a really tough one," gay rights activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca said. “I certainly understand where people would feel pride in this. But I just feel uneasy. It makes me very uncomfortable that Harvey’s name is on anything connected to the military."

Mabus had previously indicated that all the ships in the John-Lewis class would be named after civil rights leaders. Joining Milk's name on the list are former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, women's rights activist Lucy Stone and abolitionist Sojourner Truth. 

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