US Navy to Name Ship After Gay Rights Activist Harvey Milk


While Milk’s service during the Korean War is commendable, the fact is that he is being honored not for his service but, like many of the others honored in the John Lewis class, for his civilian activism.

While one might respect and admire these individuals’ sacrifices, they should not be confused with the very different sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform:

“Following his service, Milk was elected to the San Francisco board of supervisors and was the first openly gay California politician to be elected to office. He was killed in office in 1978. When Milk was shot he was wearing his U.S. Navy diver’s belt buckle.

Over the last several years, there have been pushes from California politicians to have a ship named for Milk since the 2011 repeal of the Department of Defense’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ policy.

Naming a ship after Milk, ‘will further send a green light to all the brave men and women who serve our nation that honesty, acceptance and authenticity are held up among the highest ideals of our military,’ said Milk’s nephew Stuart Milk in a statement to San Diego LGBT Weekly in 2012.”

Source: USNI



Share

109 Comments

  1. Gman

Leave a Reply

Pin It on Pinterest