San Diego civic leaders held a press conference Friday morning to denounce Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s order to rename the USNS Harvey Milk.
Among them were Mayor Todd Gloria, other elected officials and Nicole Murray Ramirez, a prominent member of the San Diego LGBTQ community and chairman of the city’s Human Relations Commission.
“As mayor of this great city, I want to make sure we’re crystal clear that San Diego objects strongly to renaming this ship,” Gloria said. “This is happening during Pride month. This is intentional, and this is disgraceful. It is cruel and it is mean.”
The renaming announcement came Tuesday, a mere three days into Pride Month, celebrated by the LGBTQ community. Reaction has been swift, with Democrats, led by California Sen. Adam Schiff, setting out to try and block the Department of Defense from removing Milk’s name from the John-Lewis class oiler, built at NASSCO in San Diego.
At the press conference, speakers said the renaming is contributing to attempts to erase the community.
“We of the LGBT community will never be erased,” Ramirez said. “We are indeed a resilient community, so read my lips: We are never going back into the closet.”
Ramirez was a driving force behind naming the Navy ship in Milk’s honor. He also led the charge in the naming of Harvey Milk Street in Hillcrest, where the San Diego LGBT Center is located.
Knowing Milk’s name would be on a ship – the honor was announced in 2016 – was “not just emotional but transformational” for Bob Lehman, a Marine Corps veteran who served in silence as a gay man for 10 years. Lehman is the founder of the San Diego chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights.
Milk was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States. He served in the United States Navy from 1951 to 1955, but was “other than honorably” discharged after being questioned about his sexual orientation.
After his discharge, Milk became an activist and was elected as a county supervisor in San Francisco. The same year he took office, 1978, he was assassinated by a disgruntled former supervisor.
Former U.S. Rep. Susan Davis, a Democrat from San Diego, stressed the importance of the ship’s name, what it means to people and how they view the LGBTQ community. Davis was present at the christening of the ship in 2021 and said she still has people come up to her to tell her how seeing Milk honored in a such a way changed their life.
The renaming is part of the Trump administration’s stated desire to bring back “warrior culture.” But Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, a San Diego County civil service commissioner, said Hegseth’s and Trump’s vision is “rooted in exclusion, not excellence.”
Ramirez said LGBTQ members have always been around to serve the community and defend the country.
“The blood that is spilled is not red, white and blue — it’s red. It’s not lavender,” he said. “They’re all heroes and this is an insult and so disrespectful to one of our heroes.”
State Assemblymember Chris Ward called out the Trump administration for “continuing its tirade of attacks” on the community rather than dealing with “legitimate issues concerning our national security.”
“I particularly call the Trump administration to reverse course on all of these hurtful initiatives because this proposed renaming today is a slap in the face to those of us in the San Diego community and in the LGBTQ community here in California,” he said.
Speakers also expressed their frustration with the Trump administration and its moves against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Ramirez concluded the event with a call to action.
“They must know we’re not only not going anywhere, we are here to stay and to fight back,” he said.
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