The name game

When the Navy and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in June announced the renaming of several USNS ships—a class of civilian-­operated oilers—including the USNS Harvey Milk, the American left erupted. “As the rest of us are celebrating the joy of Pride Month,” House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi posted on her socials, “it is my hope that the Navy will reconsider this egregious decision and continue to recognize the extraordinary contributions of Harvey Milk, a [v]eteran himself, and all Americans who forged historic progress for our nation.”

Well, yes, Milk was a veteran. A lieutenant junior grade and diving officer who in 1955 received an “other than honorable” discharge over his homosexuality. The following year, at age 33, Milk began a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy. One sympathetic biographer wrote that Milk “always had a penchant for young waifs with substance abuse problems.”

But the gay community considers Milk an icon. An openly gay San Francisco city supervisor in the 1970s, Milk held considerable sway with then-Mayor George Moscone. When Moscone refused to reappoint a man named Dan White to the Board of Supervisors, White blamed both men.

On Nov. 27, 1978, White smuggled a revolver into San Francisco City Hall, sneaking in through a basement window. He walked into Moscone’s office and shot him dead, then walked to Milk’s office and killed him too. The murders were widely considered a political assassination, with one victim straight and one gay. But in the late ’70s, with the gay rights movement gaining steam, activists turned Milk into America’s first gay martyr. Since then, Milk has appeared on everything from a U.S. postage stamp to street names, a children’s book, and a biopic starring Sean Penn. Barack Obama awarded him a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Now Jennifer Pike Bailey of the Human Rights Campaign is accusing the Trump administration of “wasting time and taxpayer dollars on a desperate attempt to divide our country and politicize our military.”

But politics were already the problem, said one government official, who requested anonymity in order to keep his job. Traditionally, ships were named to commemorate pivotal battles (USS Okinawa), American ideals (USS Independence), commanders-in-chief (USS George H.W. Bush) or important figures in naval history (USS Doris Miller).

Now, though, performative politics has infected ship-­naming as it has practically everything else. “What’s happening,” the official said, “is they look at what ship is being built next and name it to make a political statement. That’s how you get a USNS Cesar Chavez.”

What Big Navy officially recognizes as history matters deeply to the rank and file, from commanding officers to the most junior hull tech cleaning out the bilges.

“For those who have served on a U.S. naval ship, there’s always history around it,” retired Master Chief Gordon Carlon told me. “On the quarterdeck, there’s usually a plaque explaining the significance of the ship’s namesake. People on the ship are proud of that, and they talk about it.” Had he been assigned to the Harvey Milk, “I’d serve my country proudly and lead sailors to the best of my ability, and all of that.” But he wouldn’t talk much about the ship’s namesake because, in short, its namesake would not make him proud.

In military units, there is an esprit de corps that develops around the unit’s history. Think of the Army’s 101st Airborne of Band of Brothers fame, which charged across Europe trailing victory in its wake. More than 80 years later, the guys I know who served in the 101st take immense pride in adding their own chapters to such a glorious history.

Several of the USNS ships set for rebranding are named for undisputed civil rights heroes, such as Congressman John Lewis, who led 600 peaceful protesters over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. But their history is not naval, or even military, history. Still, Hegseth’s critics have claimed in fiery language that the administration is acting out of bigotry.

But Hegseth, a veteran himself and an outspoken Christian, says he wants to reestablish a “warrior culture” in America’s military. And despite more than a decade of official “reeducation” designed to get military personnel to accept homosexuality as a legitimate part of that culture, sailors I spoke with still consider sodomy—and pedophilia—­unacceptable and immoral.

One told me, “I would not be proud to walk around in a Navy ballcap that said USS Harvey Milk.” Another said, “It might make me throw up in my mouth a little.”