Levka<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Pride" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Pride</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LGBTQI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LGBTQI</span></a>+ <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HarveyMilk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HarveyMilk</span></a> </p><p>"Hegseth announces new name of US navy ship that honored gay rights icon Harvey Milk</p><p>Hegseth announces new name of US navy ship that honored gay rights icon Harvey Milk</p><p>Defense secretary said the vessel will be renamed after Oscar V Peterson to take ‘politics out of ship naming’<br>Edward Helmore<br>Fri 27 Jun 2025 14.40 EDT</p><p>The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has formally announced that the US navy supply vessel named in honor of the gay rights activist Harvey Milk is to be renamed after Oscar V Peterson, a chief petty officer who received the congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of the Coral Sea in the second world war.</p><p>“We are taking the politics out of ship naming,” Hegseth announced on Friday on X.</p><p>In an accompanying video-statement, Hegseth added: “We are not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration. Instead, we are renaming the ship after a congressional Medal of Honor recipient.”</p><p>“People want to be proud of the ship they are sailing in,” Hegseth added.</p><p>The move comes amid a widespread backlash against LGBTQ+ rights and issues in the US under the Trump administration, ranging from banning books associated with LGBTQ+ causes to reducing the rights of transgender people.<br>Outside view of plate glass windows and person leaning against them</p><p>The oil-supply vessel had been named after the San Francisco gay rights activist, who was murdered in 1978 after serving as a city supervisor, dubbing himself the “Mayor of Castro Street”. He had served in the navy as a diving officer on a submarine rescue ship but resigned with an “other than honorable” discharge rather than be court-martialed for homosexuality."</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/27/hegseth-navy-ship-harvey-milk-oscar-peterson" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/us-news/2025/j</span><span class="invisible">un/27/hegseth-navy-ship-harvey-milk-oscar-peterson</span></a></p>