Hegseth’s Bid to Rename USNS Harvey Milk Draws Homophobia Fire
Somewhere between “defender of tradition” and “master of political grandstanding,” Pete Hegseth has pinpointed a U.S. Navy vessel named after gay rights icon Harvey Milk as the next battleground in America’s culture wars. During a June 2 appearance on Fox & Friends (source: Fox News), Hegseth argued that re-christening the USNS Harvey Milk was nothing more than “woke symbolism” that undermines military readiness. Because of course, nothing says “strength under fire” like publicly upbraiding a 1970s supervisor turned civil rights pioneer.
Harvey Levin, TMZ’s founder, didn’t exactly hand out commemorative medals for Hegseth’s logic. In an exclusive scoop on June 4 (source: TMZ), Levin labeled Hegseth’s reasons “flat-out homophobic,” pointing out that conflating LGBTQ recognition with political theater is a time-worn tactic to score headlines at the expense of an entire community. Levin’s critique wasn’t delivered with a soft pillow—he called out the argument as “an insult to Milk’s legacy,” referencing Milk’s own military service background. Serving in the Navy himself, Milk was court-marshaled in 1954 solely for his sexuality, lending grim irony to Hegseth’s stance against honoring him.
Hegseth insists this isn’t about prejudice. He frames his objections around “keeping politics out of the Pentagon,” a phrase more rote than original. This sounds especially convincing coming from a man whose career pivoted from Army National Guard officer to Fox News commentator. Third time’s the charm when deciding that the Navy naming conventions should ignore one of the first openly gay elected officials in U.S. history.
Critics are lining up faster than you can say “military tradition,” with voices from The Washington Post and CNN noting that renaming vessels for trailblazers is hardly unprecedented. The Navy currently honours Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor and civil rights leader Robert Smalls. Yet Hegseth’s campaign feels less like a principled stance and more like a reality-TV stunt without the remote control.
LGBTQ advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Campaign, have already fired off letters to the Navy Secretary, demanding that the USNS Harvey Milk keep its name intact. They remind everyone that Milk’s “political theater” amounted to fighting for equal rights, not cable-news soundbites. Meanwhile, social media has turned Hegseth’s comments into meme fodder, proving that mockery can travel faster than any warship.
Let’s pretend we learned something today: when your big issue is a ship’s name, you might be running out of real problems to solve. Tune in next time for more maritime melodrama and headline-chasing antics.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and TMZ, Fox News, The Washington Post, Human Rights Campaign
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
