‘These guys are idiots': Sean Penn calls out Hegseth's erasure of Harvey Milk from navy ship
Sean Penn, the Oscar-winning actor of the 2008 Harvey Milk biopic Milk and Milk writer Dustin Lance Black have spoken out against US defense secretary Pete Hegseth's decision to remove the gay rights icon's name from a navy ship.
'This is yet another move to distract and to fuel the culture wars that create division,' Black told the Hollywood Reporter in a phone call on Wednesday. 'It's meant to get us to react in ways that are self-centered so that we are further distanced from our brothers and sisters in equally important civil rights fights in this country. It's divide and conquer.'
Penn, who won his second best actor Oscar for playing the former San Francisco supervisor, added in an email: 'I've never before seen a Secretary of Defense so aggressively demote himself to the rank of Chief PETTY Officer.'
The order to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, christened in San Diego in 2021 for the prominent gay rights and navy veteran, was part of an internal memo that was leaked on Tuesday. The Pentagon's chief spokesperson confirmed that the ship's new name 'will be announced after internal reviews are complete'.
The timing of the decision for mid-June, a month meant to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, was reportedly intentional. The renaming is supposed to ensure 'alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture', referring to Donald Trump, Hegseth and navy secretary John Phelan, according to the memorandum.
'Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the commander in chief's priorities, our nation's history and the warrior ethos,' the Pentagon said in a statement.
'These guys are idiots,' Black told the Hollywood Reporter. 'Pete Hegseth does not seem like a smart man, a wise man, a knowledgeable man. He seems small and petty. I would love to introduce him to some LGBTQ folks who are warriors who have had to be warriors our entire life just to live our lives openly as who we are.'
Milk, written by Black and directed by Gus Van Sant, depicted Milk's political ascendancy in San Francisco, where he became the first publicly gay man to be elected to public office when he won a seat on the city's board of supervisors. He was assassinated along with mayor George Moscone by former city supervisor Dan White in 1978. White was convicted on two counts of voluntary manslaughter and served just five years in prison.
The USNS Harvey Milk was initially named in 2016 during the administration of Barack Obama. According to the leaked memo, Phelan is also considering new titles for vessels named after such civil rights icons as Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harriet Tubman and Cesar Chavez.
'Harvey Milk is an icon, a civil rights icon, and for good reason,' Black said. 'That's not going to change. Renaming a ship isn't going to change that. If people are pissed off, good, be pissed off – but take the appropriate action. Do what Harvey Milk had said we need to do, and it's about bringing back together the coalition of the 'us'-es that helps move the pendulum of progress forward. Stop the infighting and lock arms again. That's what Harvey would say.'
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