Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to strike the name of pioneering gay rights activist Harvey Milk from one of its ships, orchestrating the change as Pride month celebrations take place.
A defense official said the timing of the decision was intentional.
The John Lewis-class replenishment oiler USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206) conducts a replenishment at sea, Dec. 13, 2024.
MC2 Maxwell Orlosky/Dvids
The order was first reported by Military.com and confirmed by ABC News.
Milk was one of the first openly gay men elected to public office in the United States after winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated a year later.
Before serving in public office, Milk in 1951 enlisted in the Navy and attended Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island.
Harvey Milk, an openly gay member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, sits outside his camera shop in San Francisco, November 9, 1977.
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
He then was a Navy diving instructor in San Diego but resigned in 1955 “after being officially questioned about his sexual orientation,” according to the Harvey Milk Foundation.
Both his mother and his father also served in the U.S. Navy in World War I.
The USNS Harvey Milk is one of several ships named after prominent civil rights leaders and activists. A new name has not been announced.
Guests walk past the USNS Harvey Milk at General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard during the christening and launch ceremony for the ship in San Diego, California on November 6, 2021.
Ariana Drehsler/AFP via Getty Images
Before his death, Milk was credited with encouraging his friend and artist Gilbert Baker, a U.S. Army veteran to create the Pride flag. Milk was played by Sean Penn in the 2008 biographical film “Milk.”
Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
