HISTORIC

U.S. Navy to Name Ship After Harvey Milk

Gay rights icon.

The U.S. Navy is naming a ship after Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to public office in California. Milk was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1955 after serving for four years. “When Harvey Milk served in the military, he couldn’t tell anyone who he truly was,” said San Francisco politician Scott Wiener. Wiener wrote the resolution requesting that the Navy name a ship after Milk. “Now our country is telling the men and women who serve, and the entire world, that we honor and support people for who they are.” The Harvey Milk Foundation posted on Facebook, “Hope is never silent and will be represented in a world port soon via the USNS Harvey Milk.” Women’s rights activist and abolitionist Sojourner Truth will also be granted this honor.