On Saturday 6th the US Navy in San Diego christened and launched a ship named for the iconic gay rights leader and politician Harvey Milk. Ironically Milk had served four years in the Navy before being forced out,

The Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said he needed to be there not just to amend the wrongs of the past, but to give inspiration to all of our LGBTQ community leaders who served in the Navy, in uniform today and in the civilian workforce as well too, and to tell them that he is committed to them in the future.

Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk watched as USNS Harvey Milk slid down the shipyard ways after a bottle of champagne was smashed on the bow by former Navy officer Paula M. Neira, clinical program director for the John Hopkins Center for Transgender Health.

Milk was one of the first openly gay candidates elected to public office. He was serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978 when a former political colleague, Dan White, assassinated him and Mayor George Moscone at City Hall.

In 2016, then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus decided that six new oilers scheduled to be built would be named after civil and human rights leaders. In addition to Milk, they include Sojourner Truth, Chief Justice Earl Warren, Robert F. Kennedy, suffragist Lucy Stone and Rep. John Lewis of Georgia. Secretary Del Toro told Mabus, who attended the christening, that it was a courageous decision.

The USNS Harvey Milk was launched in San Diego. The US Navy Fleet Oiler was commissioned by Paula Neira, the Clinical Program Director for John Hopkins Center for Transgender Health. SF Supervisor Milk was killed in office by Dan White in 1978. Milk was a Navy Vet. @nbcbayarea pic.twitter.com/P1aPq9CWF2

— John Zuchelli (@tvzuke) November 6, 2021