Long After No One Remembers The Name Hegseth, Harvey Milk Will Still Be An Icon For Millions Of Us

Trump Regime Anti-Semitism And Homophobia On The Rise

Harvey Milk was a close friend when I first moved top San Francisco and he helped me get started with my new life. I was incensed this week that I read that the sniveling turd Trump put in charge of the armed forces is spitefully changing the name of a replenishment oiler named for Milk. Military.com reported that “A defense official confirmed that the Navy was making preparations to strip the ship of its name but noted that Navy Secretary John Phelan was ordered to do so by Hegseth. The official also said that the timing of the announcement— occurring during Pride month— was intentional.”

Nancy Pelosi issued a statement calling the decision to rename the USNS Harvey Milk "a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country.” This class of ships, a John Lewis-class oiler, are named after prominent civil rights leaders and activists. Hegseth also plans to re-named the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg and USNS Harriet Tubman. Pelosi called this “a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream. Our military is the most powerful in the world— but this spiteful move does not strengthen our national security or the 'warrior' ethos.”

The oiler was first named after Milk in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. Milk came from a family that had a history of naval service and he was commissioned as an officer in 1951… Milk then served as a diving officer on the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake during the Korean War. He left the service as a lieutenant junior grade in 1955 with a “less than honorable” discharge “after being officially questioned about his sexual orientation,” according to his official biography.

Milk then went on to run for political office in California, winning a seat on the San Francisco board of supervisors in 1977. He was killed in office in 1978 shortly after passing a bill banning housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.

His death transformed Milk into an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the LGBTQ community. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. 

In an editorial for The Forward, Benjamin Ivry wrote that “Among reactions to the news was that of the gay American Jewish playwright Harvey Fierstein, a gender warrior in his own right, who opined on Facebook that the current occupant of the White House is a ‘vile, petty, stupid, destructive, jealous, illiterate, hateful, ego-maniacal and dangerous shmuck.’ More temperately, gay Jewish California state Senator Scott Wiener informed the Los Angeles Times that the move was part of a ‘systematic campaign to eliminate LGBTQ people from public life… They want us to go away, to go back in the closet, not to be part of public life. And we’re not going anywhere,’ Wiener added.”

Ivry reported that “in 2016 by then-U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, a Methodist from Mississippi… also observed that the Jewish hero ‘offered hope for millions of Americans who were being ostracized and prosecuted just for who they loved,’ he said. Commemorating this hope, a group of oil replenishment vessels was planned to honor other civil rights pioneers… Maritime historians declare that renaming a ship is considered bad luck because those who initiate any such change may anger Poseidon, the Ancient Greek god of the sea who keeps track of such things. Those who try to do so get what they deserve, according to legend.”

As with Milk and Ginsburg, Lewis is anathema to today’s White House and its underlings, and anything relating, however remotely, to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility is now taboo.

Hegseth has already ordered that any mention of African Americans, women, or LGBT people be deleted from Ministry of Defense websites. Among the more derisory results of this edict occurred in March when a tribute to the Jewish comedian Bea Arthur’s World War II military service was scrubbed from a US Department of Defense website, and then restored days later after protests were made.

Bea Arthur (born Frankel), best remembered for her role on The Golden Girls, had patriotically enlisted in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve after hostilities broke out. Her Department of Defense page also recalled that Arthur later supported charities helping homeless LGBTQ+ youth, a fact which may have offended the current censors in charge. Bea Arthur’s tzedakah, in addition to her gender, were enough to get her banished, at least temporarily, from the website.

Could Harvey Milk’s name be as promptly restored to honor? After all, the stated priority of “reestablishing the warrior culture” might arguably include a number of Jews who braved battles.

One such was Gad Beck, a resistance fighter whose memoir An Underground Life: Memoirs Of A Gay Jew In Nazi Berlin detailed his wartime efforts to supply food and hiding places to Jews escaping to neutral Switzerland. Then there was  Frank Kameny, a New York-born Jewish astronomer who was fired from his position with the U.S. Army Map Service due to his sexual orientation; Kameny dedicated his life to combative, albeit peaceable, activism.

… Given the ignorance and hatred still reigning in America, what could be the next attempt to sully the memory of Jews and others of minority status? At least 17 American Jews have received the Medal of Honor. Some might have been Democrats. As most died on the field of honor, it would be necessary to pry the medals from their survivors.

But fortunately, most such honors cannot be rescinded, however small-minded, petty rulers with no concept of bravery, honor, or service might wish to do so.

This means that no further indignities await the ghost of Harvey Milk, whose immortal renown is assured. In August 2009, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, stating that Milk “fought discrimination with visionary courage and conviction.”

And there is no way to take back the Presidential Medal of Freedom, or the current administration might have already tried to do so. Realistically, vessels can always be named or renamed, however rare this latter event might be. Jewish observers of the current downfall of America’s prestige worldwide may instead focus more pertinently on more permanent damage potentially being done.

Yesterday, the Hollywood Reporter’s Seth Abramovitch wrote that “Dustin Lance Black and Sean Penn, who won Academy Awards for writing and starring in the 2008 Harvey Milk biopic Milk, are speaking out… ‘This is yet another move to distract and to fuel the culture wars that create division,’ Black, 50, says. ‘It’s meant to get us to react in ways that are self-centered so that we are further distanced from our brothers and sisters in equally important civil rights fights in this country. It’s divide and conquer… These guys are idiots. Pete Hegseth does not seem like a smart man, a wise man, a knowledgeable man. He seems small and petty. I would love to introduce him to some LGBTQ folks who are warriors who have had to be warriors our entire life just to live our lives openly as who we are… Harvey Milk is an icon, a civil rights icon, and for good reason. That’s not going to change. Renaming a ship isn’t going to change that. If people are pissed off, good, be pissed off— but take the appropriate action. Do what Harvey Milk had said we need to do, and it’s about bringing back together the coalition of the us-es that helps move the pendulum of progress forward. Stop the infighting and lock arms again. That’s what Harvey would say.’”

Penn added that “I’ve never before seen a Secretary of Defense so aggressively demote himself to the rank of Chief PETTY Officer.”

I guarantee you that for all the dishonest screeching by Trump about anti-semitism at Harvard and other Ivy League schools that rejected him, his inner circle, cabinet and whole administration are riven with real anti-Semitism and real Nazis.