‘Slap in the face’ – San Diego leaders speak out against renaming of USNS Harvey Milk

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria speaks in front of the USS Midway Photo by Gabrielle Wallace San Diego civic leaders held a press conference Friday morning to denounce Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth s order to rename the USNS Harvey Milk Among them were Mayor Todd Gloria other elected agents and Nicole Murray Ramirez a prominent member of the San Diego LGBTQ public and chairman of the city s Human Relations Commission As mayor of this great city I want to make sure we re crystal clear that San Diego objects strongly to renaming this ship Gloria revealed This is happening during Pride month This is intentional and this is disgraceful It is cruel and it is mean The renaming announcement came Tuesday a mere three days into Pride Month celebrated by the LGBTQ district Reaction has been swift with Democrats led by California Sen Adam Schiff setting out to try and block the Department of Defense from removing Milk s name from the John-Lewis class oiler built at NASSCO in San Diego At the press conference speakers declared the renaming is contributing to attempts to erase the region We of the LGBT public will never be erased Ramirez declared We are indeed a resilient neighborhood so read my lips We are never going back into the closet Ramirez was a driving force behind naming the Navy ship in Milk s honor He also led the charge in the naming of Harvey Milk Street in Hillcrest where the San Diego LGBT Center is located Knowing Milk s name would be on a ship the honor was disclosed in was not just emotional but transformational for Bob Lehman a Marine Corps veteran who served in silence as a gay man for years Lehman is the founder of the San Diego chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights Milk was one of the first openly gay elected leaders in the United States He served in the United States Navy from to but was other than honorably discharged after being questioned about his sexual orientation After his discharge Milk became an activist and was elected as a county supervisor in San Francisco The same year he took office he was assassinated by a disgruntled former supervisor Former U S Rep Susan Davis a Democrat from San Diego stressed the importance of the ship s name what it means to people and how they view the LGBTQ group Davis was present at the christening of the ship in and declared she still has people come up to her to tell her how seeing Milk honored in a such a way changed their life The renaming is part of the Trump administration s stated desire to bring back warrior society But Will Rodriguez-Kennedy a San Diego County civil facility commissioner commented Hegseth s and Trump s vision is rooted in exclusion not excellence Ramirez revealed LGBTQ members have consistently been around to serve the society and defend the country The blood that is spilled is not red white and blue it s red It s not lavender he commented They re all heroes and this is an insult and so disrespectful to one of our heroes State Assemblymember Chris Ward called out the Trump administration for continuing its tirade of attacks on the area rather than dealing with legitimate issues concerning our national defense I particularly call the Trump administration to reverse class on all of these hurtful initiatives because this proposed renaming currently is a slap in the face to those of us in the San Diego area and in the LGBTQ area here in California he noted Speakers also expressed their frustration with the Trump administration and its moves against diversity equity and inclusion initiatives Ramirez concluded the event with a call to action They must know we re not only not going anywhere we are here to stay and to fight back he mentioned