Not Time for Milk....

[Joe Guy]

Other than demonstrating this administration's homophobia, what purpose does this serve?

Hegseth Orders Navy to Strip Name of Gay Rights Icon Harvey Milk from Ship

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to take the rare step of renaming a ship, one that bears the name of a gay rights icon, documents and sources show.

Military.com reviewed a memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy -- the official who holds the power to name Navy ships -- that showed the sea service had come up with rollout plans for the renaming of the oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk.

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.

Military.com reached out to Hegseth's office for comment on the move but did not immediately receive a response.

However, the memo reviewed by Military.com noted that the renaming was being done so that there is "alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture," apparently referencing President Donald Trump, Hegseth and Phelan.

Milk became one of the first openly gay elected officials in U.S. history during the 1970s, making him an icon of the nascent gay civil rights movement, and was killed while serving on the board of supervisors in San Francisco.

The renaming news was slated to become public June 13, according to the memo.

A new name for the Harvey Milk was not given but, according to the memo, Hegseth and Phelan are planning to announce the new name aboard the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned Navy ship.
[Inside sources say they will be changing the name to the USNS Manly Mann]

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former House Speaker who represents much of San Francisco, in a statement Tuesday called the decision to rename the ship "a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country."

The Harvey Milk is a John Lewis-class oiler, a group of ships that are to be named after prominent civil rights leaders and activists.

CBS reported Tuesday that the Navy is also considering renaming other John Lewis-class oilers including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and USNS Harriet Tubman. Both Marshall and Ginsburg were Supreme Court justices, and Tubman was a Black abolitionist who helped slaves escape the South via the Underground Railroad.

Unlike the Milk, though, some of the ships being considered for renaming have yet to be completed.

Pelosi called that possibility "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," she added.

While there are some rare examples of Navy ships being renamed following construction and christening, those instances are outliers and, broadly, Navy traditions consider renaming a ship to be taboo.

The most recent renaming occurred in 2023 when the Navy decided to rename the cruiser USS Chancellorsville and research ship USNS Maury -- two names with ties to the Confederacy -- to USS Robert Smalls and USNS Marie Tharp, respectively.

Unlike the decision to rename the Harvey Milk, which was done on the orders of Hegseth, the recommendation to rename the two ships came from a commission that was created by Congress to study names with ties to the Confederacy across the entire military.

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, according to USNI News. 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.

The USNS Harvey Milk is currently completing maintenance and refit work at a shipyard in Alabama that is expected to wrap up by the end of June.

[datsunaholic]

That's all it is. The administration (and Pete Hegseth's) transparent bigotry. Hegseth is openly white supremacist and ant-gay, and wants the Military to go back to the days when gays were barred from serving.

(Note: when I joined the Navy in 1992, that was still the official policy).

While I do not support renaming the ships, especially as it's simply a case of them trying to purge DEI from the military, I also oppose the blatant political pandering of naming ships for non military people. The political naming has gotten out of hand. It all started in 1945 when the Navy decided to rename the then under construction aircraft carrier CVB-42 Coral Sea to Franklin D Roosevelt. This kicked off naming Aircraft Carriers for Politicians, and while some names are more or less appropriate, many are just political pandering. The USS John C Stennis is a particularly egregious one, but future carriers to be named for William J Clinton and George W Bush aren't particularly appropriate either (George H.W. Bush, on the other hand, wasn't quite as bad as Bush Sr WAS in fact a US Naval Aviator).

I will note that Harvey Milk was in fact a Navy officer, and was kicked out for being gay.

The entire John Lewis class of replenishment oilers was given names of civil rights leaders; the first 6 were named in 2016 at the end of the Obama administration by then Secnav Ray Mabus. Only the first 3, USNS John Lewis, USNS Harvey Milk, and USNS Earl Warren, are currently in service. 5 more are currently under construction and 9 more are planned, 7 or which have not been named. Of the 10 ships already named, only Harvey Milk and Robert J Kennedy had any ties to the Navy; Earl Warren was in the Army, but the other 7 had no ties to the military at all.



Historically, US Navy (and the civilian manned Military Sealift Command) Replenishment Oilers were named for American rivers like Caloosahatchee, Rappahannock, Willamette, Cimarron, Big Horn, etc. The Henry J Kaiser class oilers that started being built in the 1980s changed that although even some of those got river names.

[BoSoxGal]

I can tell you one thing; I've lived a long while now and had lots of interactions with lots of men of differing natures and I would bet every penny I've ever earned that Pete Hegseth dreams of sucking cock and that's why he's such a fucked up mess who drinks himself sick and beats on the women he marries and uses to cover for his cowardice.

Eradicating homophobia in our society would liberate a whole lot more folks than those living openly as queer, obviously.

[Scooter]

I would bet every penny I've ever earned that Pete Hegseth dreams of sucking cock

That's what these guys said when they commented on this story:

Finally, as regards Hegseth, we'll just toss one other observation out there. In our experience, when a person works so very hard to communicate to the world how very bad these gays are, and how very much we need to do something about these gays, and how they are personally committed to stopping these gays from indulging in their gayness, there is usually... something going on there.

[BoSoxGal]

I hope it was clear to folks from my admittedly awkward wording that it's not the dreaming of sucking cock that makes Pete a fucked up mess - it's the denial/self-loathing of his own nature that leads to that.

[Sue U]

From 20(!) years ago:

Commentary, Opinion
Why Do All These Homosexuals Keep Sucking My Cock?

Published: July 6, 2005


Look, I’m not a hateful person or anything—I believe we should all live and let live. But lately, I’ve been having a real problem with these homosexuals. You see, just about wherever I go these days, one of them approaches me and starts sucking my cock.

Take last Sunday, for instance, when I casually struck up a conversation with this guy in the health-club locker room. Nothing fruity, just a couple of fellas talking about their workout routines while enjoying a nice hot shower. The guy looked like a real man’s man, too—big biceps, meaty thighs, thick neck. He didn’t seem the least bit gay. At least not until he started sucking my cock, that is.

Where does this queer get the nerve to suck my cock? Did I look gay to him? Was I wearing a pink feather boa without realizing it? I don’t recall the phrase, “Suck my cock” entering the conversation, and I don’t have a sign around my neck that reads, “Please, You Homosexuals, Suck My Cock.”

I’ve got nothing against homosexuals. Let them be free to do their gay thing in peace, I say. But when they start sucking my cock, I’ve got a real problem.

Then there was the time I was hiking through the woods and came across a rugged-looking, blond-haired man in his early 30s. He seemed straight enough to me while we were bathing in that mountain stream, but, before you know it, he’s sucking my cock!

What is it with these homos? Can’t they control their sexual urges? Aren’t there enough gay cocks out there for them to suck on without them having to target normal people like me?

Believe me, I have no interest in getting my cock sucked by some queer. But try telling that to the guy at the beach club. Or the one at the video store. Or the one who catered my wedding. Or any of the countless other homos who’ve come on to me recently. All of them sucked my cock, and there was nothing I could do to stop them.

I tell you, when a homosexual is sucking your cock, a lot of strange thoughts go through your head: How the hell did this happen? Where did this fairy ever get the idea that I was gay? And where did he get those fantastic boots?

It screws with your head at other times, too. Every time a man passes me on the street, I’m afraid he’s going to grab me and drag me off to some bathroom to suck my cock. I’ve even started to visualize these repulsive cock-sucking episodes during the healthy, heterosexual marital relations I enjoy with my wife—even some that haven’t actually happened, like the sweaty, post-game locker-room tryst with Vancouver Canucks forward Mark Messier that I can’t seem to stop thinking about.

Things could be worse, I suppose. It could be women trying to suck my cock, which would be adultery and would make me feel tremendously guilty. As it is, I’m just angry and sickened. But, believe me, that’s enough. I don’t know what makes these homosexuals mistake me for a guy who wants his cock sucked, and, frankly, I don’t want to know. I just wish there were some way to get them to stop.

I’ve tried all sorts of things, but it’s all been to no avail. A few months back, I started wearing an intimidating-looking black leather thong with menacing metal studs in the hopes that it would frighten those faggots off, but it didn’t work. In fact, it only seemed to encourage them. Then, I really started getting rough, slapping them around whenever they were sucking my cock, but that failed, too. Even pulling out of their mouths just before ejaculation and shooting sperm all over their face, chest, and hair seemed to have no effect. What do I have to do to get the message across to these swishes?

I swear, if these homosexuals don’t take a hint and quit sucking my cock all the time, I’m going to have to resort to drastic measures—like maybe pinning them down to the cement floor of the loading dock with my powerful forearms and working my cock all the way up their butt so they understand loud and clear just how much I disapprove of their unwelcome advances. I mean, you can’t get much more direct than that.

[Bicycle Bill]

In other news from the Department of Kids Playing Soldier, all sailors, soldiers, and airmen are being directed to always refer to their ship, aircraft, or other piece of equipment in the masculine — thus breaking with long-standing tradition dating back to the days when men first went down to the sea in ships.

Which makes me think ... if a ship is named for a man (like the Bon Homme Richard, the Reuben James or the USS Ronald Reagan) but the crew refers to it as "she", then that means that the Navy has always embraced trans-genderism.

-"BB"-