Who was Harvey Milk? Late SF gay rights icon at center of ship renaming controversy

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The controversy over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering the renaming of a Navy vessel has thrust the name of the late Harvey Milk back into the national limelight. Milk, a gay rights icon, is the namesake of the U.S. Navy replenishment oiler the USNS Harvey Milk.

The vessel is a John Lewis-class replenishment ship that was named in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who said all John-Lewis class oilers would be named for leaders who fought for civil and human rights.

Born in Woodmere, New York in 1930, Milk was a naval and combat veteran who served for years during the Korean War before being forced out for being gay. Milk made history in 1978 when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming one of the first openly gay men elected to public office in California, and the nation.

During his brief tenure in office, Milk championed the rights of the gay community and sponsored a bill to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. That bill was signed into law by then-Mayor George Moscone.

Milk, however, would serve less than a year in office before meeting with a tragic end. On Nov. 27, 1978, Milk and Moscone were assassinated in San Francisco City Hall by former supervisor Dan White.

Milk was 48 years old at the time of the killings.

White served just five years in prison for the killings. His attorneys employed a legal defense known a diminished capacity and argued that his mental deterioration was exacerbated by a junk food binge. Bay Area newspapers dubbed this argument the “Twinkie defense.”

White died by suicide in 1985.

In the years and decades since his killing, Milk rose to the status of gay rights icon. In San Francisco’s Castro District where Milk rose to political prominence as the self-proclaimed “Mayor of Castro Street,” there is a plaza named after him.

In 2018, Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport was renamed Harvey Milk Terminal 1. A bust of Milk can be found in San Francisco City Hall. In 2009, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Milk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He was also the subject of the 2008 Gus Van Sant film “Milk,” which starred Sean Penn in the title role, and won two Oscars — Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.

The USNS Harvey Milk was named in 2016 and launched in 2021. The unusual order to rename the vessel marks the latest move by Hegseth and the wider Trump administration to purge all programs, policies, books and social media mentions of references to diversity, equity and inclusion. And it comes during Pride Month — the same timing as the Pentagon’s campaign to force transgender troops out of the U.S. military.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.