'Harvey Milk': US Navy launches ship named for pioneering gay rights leader

US Navy on Nov. 6, Saturday launched a ship in San Diego named for a pioneering gay rights veteran Harvey Milk who was the first nationally recognized openly gay man elected to public office in the United States. The slain gay rights leader had served in the Navy for four years and had fought during the Korean War. Vast grassroots-based campaign and subsequent victory signalled a coming-of-age for San Francisco’s LGBT population, according to Legacy Project. On Saturday, the US Navy launched replenishment oiler USNS Harvey Milk that was seen sliding down the shipyard as former Navy officer Paula M. Neira, clinical program director for the John Hopkins Center for Transgender Health celebrated with a bottle of champagne in a traditional ceremony. The event was attended by Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk, and Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro reports confirmed. 

“The secretary of the Navy needed to be here today, 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 we’re committed to them in the future,” Del Toro told SanFrancisco CBS. 

He added, that Milk had to “mask that very important part of his life” while he served in the Navy, and far too long, sailors like Lt. Milk were forced into the shadows or, worse yet, forced out of our beloved Navy.” 

“That injustice is part of our Navy history, but so is the perseverance of all who continue to serve in the face of injustice,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said. 

A visionary civil and human rights leader who was 'assassinated' 

Milk foundation describes Milk as a visionary civil and human rights leader who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States after he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Politically adept and a skilled negotiator, Milk was assassinated along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone on November 27, 1978, a harrowing incident that triggered riots in the gay community. Milk turned an icon in San Francisco and "a martyr for gay rights" worldwide, as per the reports. USNS Harvey Milk is one of six new Naval vessels to be named after the martyred civil rights leaders. The other ships have been named after Chief Justice Earl Warren and slain presidential candidate Robert Kennedy. Obama administration had first announced its plan to name one Navy ship after Milk as respect for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people.