US Navy names ship after Gay Rights Icon Harvey Milk

The United States Navy has launched a US Navy vessel after slain gay activist and icon Harvey Milk. Milk was a Navy Lieutenant during the Korean War and served as a diving officer aboard the USS Kittiwake in San Diego. He was discharged from the Navy with a “Less than Honorable Discharge” in 1955 for being a homosexual.

Harvey Milk is best known as a gay activist in the 1960’s and 70’s. He was the first openly gay legislator in the United States, being elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was assassinated shortly after being elected to office.

USNS Harvey Milk is one of a new class of replenishment oiler vessels, and is among 20 similar ships that will be named after social activists such as Sojourner Truth, Representative John Louis and Lucy Stone. The vessel was christened by former Navy officer Paula M. Neira, clinical program director for the John Hopkins Center for Transgender Health.