In addition to his repeated breaches of security protocols and his utter lack of experience, Secretary of the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has again dishonored himself and his nation. 

In the current administration’s consistent and inexorable march to erase all traces of history and practice that do not accord with its image of the United States as the patriarchal heteronationalist Christian white supremacist nation they purport it to be, Donald Trump’s lacky at the helm at the Department of Defense issued a memo in which he proposes to scrub several Navy ships of the names that honor civil rights leaders.

Related

Pete Hegseth orders Navy to remove Harvey Milk’s name from ship during Pride Month
One high-profile Democrat has called the move “spiteful,” “shameful,” and “vindictive.”

This action falls within the context of his larger plan to remove all references to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from the military. Hegseth stated that his goal is to “re-establish the warrior culture” at the Pentagon. 

Dive deeper every day

Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

Hegseth and the Trump administration, in their attempts to purge civil rights leaders from the military, has banned 400 books from the Naval Academy library on race relations, gender, and sexuality. The administration also eliminated affinity groups such as the Black Society for Engineers and the Native American Heritage Forum at military academies.

USNS ships are within the John Lewis class of oiler craft that the commander in chief sets aside to name after civil rights leaders such as the USNS Earl Warren and USNS Robert F. Kennedy, whether or not these leaders served in the US military.  

The list of potential USNS ships Hegseth plans to rename includes:

·        USNS Lucy Stone:Named after a leading pioneer suffragist and abolitionist. Lucy Stone dedicated her life to fighting inequality in all areas. She was the first Massachusetts woman to earn a college degree. She continually challenged gender norms and gender roles. She went on to write her own marriage vows to show her egalitarian beliefs. She refused to take her husband’s last name.

• USNS Harriet Tubman: Named after the abolitionist and conductor of the Underground Railroad. She was born into slavery in Maryland as Araminta Ross. After her escape, she was a central figure in the fight against slavery by risking her freedom to save others. She also served as a spy for the North during the Civil War, and as a nurse and advocate for women’s suffrage. In 2024, she was posthumously awarded the rank of brigadier general in the Maryland National Guard.

·        USNS Thurgood Marshall: Named after the first Black Supreme Court Justice from 1967-1991. Before that he headed the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and was lead counsel in the successful Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which legally ended school segregation. 

·        USNS Medgar Evers:Named after the civil rights leader who was assassinated by an avowed white supremacist. Medgar Wiley Evers was field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi. He was an Army veteran of World War II. Upon returning home, he fought for equality and justice for African Americans. Evers enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943 at age 17. He fought in Europe during World War II in the segregated 657th Port Company. He participated in the critical logistics operation, the Red Ball Express, in advance of the Allied invasion of Normandy.

·        USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Named after the feminist icon and Supreme Court Justice from 1993 to her death in 2020. Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O’Connor. Throughout her life, she fought tirelessly for women’s equality and for other civil rights causes. Though she did not serve in the military, she significantly impacted military policies through her legal work, most importantly by working to end the military’s policy of discharging women for becoming pregnant.

·        USNS Cesar Chavez:Named after the Mexican-American labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded with Dolores Huerta the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) (formerly the National Farm Workers Association). He dedicated his life to improving the working and living conditions of farm workers through the strategies of nonviolence including boycotts, strikes, and fasts. Chavez’s activism led to significant victories in raising wages, improving benefits, and securing better working conditions for farm workers. Chavez served in the U.S. Navy from 1946 to 1948, shortly following World War II, stationed in the Western Pacific, including assignments in Saipan and Guam.

·        USNS Dolores Huerta:Named after the labor leader, civil rights activist, and community organizer who co-founded with Cesar Chavez the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). For decades she played a pivotal role in the successes of the UFW. She too dedicated her life to improving the working and living conditions of farm workers. 

·        USNS Harvey Milk:Named after slain LGBTQ rights activist and icon, and former San Francisco Supervisor. Milk served in the US military from 1951 to 1955 as a lieutenant during the US involvement in the Korean War. He served on the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake, and later he worked as a diving instructor. He was discharged “other than honorable” in the policy at the time when his superiors began to know of his homosexuality.   

Maybe I am missing something in Hegseth’s actions, but when he states that he is taking these steps to “re-establish the warrior culture” at the Pentagon, why would he purge the names of some of the country’s pre-eminent and fiercest warriors our nation has produced?

These brave exemplars of courage and integrity, people who loved this country so much that they dedicated and literally risked their lives to make it a “more perfect union” and as a shining beacon to the world. Rather than attempting to wipe away their legacies, we as a nation must take their examples as sparks in igniting our own passions to change our country for the better.

The practice of changing the names of US Navy ships is extremely rare. On two occasions, however, the Navy renamed two ships in 2023 during the Biden administration because they were linked to the Confederacy: the USS Chancellorsville was renamed the USS Robert Smalls, and the USNS Maury was renamed the USNS Marie Tharp.

This time, though, Hegseth is removing names of renowned patriotic freedom loving people intent on improving life for everyone. 

So, whose names will Hegseth choose as replacements? Well, what about two names to swap for Harriet Tubman: Anthony Thompson and Edward Brodess, the owners of the two plantations on which Tubman was enslaved. 

The DOD Secretary can give the honor of a ship’s name to Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens’ Council in Jackson, Mississippi who assassinated Medgar, and Dan White, former San Franciso Supervisor who murdered both Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.

That would certainly fulfill the Trump administration’s goal of MAGA: Metastasizing American Government Autocracy!

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.