DAVID MARCUS: Why Navy ships should not be named for gay rights icons
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth kicked off Pride month this year with a shot across the bow of wokeness, as his plan to rechristen a Navy ship honoring gay rights icon Harvey Milk has emerged.
Milk was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the country as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978, and in that same year he was gunned down, leaving him a legacy as a martyr to the cause of gay liberation.
Let's be clear about two things. First, Hegseth is absolutely trolling the woke left with this move and its timing. Secondly, he is absolutely right to do so, because a navy vessel has nothing to do with men having sex with each other and that is the only thing painting "Harvey Milk" on the side of the ship implies.
Harvey Milk is not a hero to everyone in the United States. One can wholeheartedly support equal rights without celebrating homosexuality, and asking naval officers and civilians to serve on the USNS Harvey Milk does just that.
The ship, which transports oil, isn't named after Milk, who happened to be gay; it's named after Milk because he was gay, and Hegseth is correct that this is wildly inappropriate.
Why not the USNS Liberace? Think of the boon it would be to the domestic chandelier industry.
Progressives seem deeply confused these days about why they don't appeal to young men, and I would like to submit that the USNS Harvey Milk is a pretty good example of why.
You take some 18-year-old guy, maybe he watched "Top Gun Maverick" a few too many times and wants to be a warfighter, then you point and say, there's your ship, it celebrates dudes making out with dudes.
Let's face it, most sailors in the Navy do not want to be sitting in a diner in 25 years wearing a ballcap that proudly states they served on the "Harvey Milk," and that's OK.
Predictably, former House Speaker and San Francisco's own Rep. Nancy Pelosi decried the decision to rename the ship, calling it, "a shameful vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers…"
Is there an element of revenge in Hegseth's action? There might be, because for decades now Americans have been forced to swallow the bizarre notion that who you have sex with is something to be proud of, as if we should all applaud.
For decades now, every June at ballgames and in TV ads, on municipal buildings and subway trains the rainbow flag has been everywhere, demanding your consent to celebrate gayness.
In recent years, as the teal of the trans flag has bled into the rainbow, we have once again been told that we must accept an absurd lie that men can become women, as if this was just some a priori truth.
Not this time, and as America rejects the trans movement, it is also realizing that bending over backwards every June to cheer on homosexuality makes no sense in a society where gay people face little to no discrimination.
A warship has one purpose, to help to destroy our enemies. Everything about the vessel should be directed towards that goal, including the name emblazoned on it. "Harvey Milk" fails that test.
Throughout the first quarter of the 21st Century, progressives have made enormous gains in American society, and they have generally assumed that once their new norms are established, they cannot be undone.
Hegseth, as he has done before by restoring the names of army bases changed by progressives, is showing that we can indeed go back. History is not a one-way ratchet that only turns left.
Progressives are firmly convinced that everything is an occasion for activism, that their preferred lifestyle and worldview should be threaded into every aspect of our lives. This is wrongheaded in general, but especially so in regard to warfare.
Hegseth is popular with soldiers and vets alike because he understands that his primary job is to kill the enemy while keeping his guys alive. It's not to promote gay rights, it's not to foster social justice, it is to destroy.
By all means, name a community center or a clinic after Harvey Milk, but not a warship. Those willing to put their lives on the line aboard deserve better.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
ICE officers, migrants stranded in East Africa
(NewsNation) — Nearly a dozen ICE officers and eight migrants are stranded in a shipping container on a U.S. naval base in Djibouti after a federal judge blocked their deportation flight to South Sudan. According to a federal court filing issued Thursday, no one has been able to leave the container and they all fell ill with respiratory infections, along with dealing with extreme heat and the threat of rocket attacks from Yemen. The ICE officers are also reportedly at risk for malaria due to not being vaccinated or taking the appropriate medication before arriving. Protesters confront ICE agents in cities across US The eight deportees, all men coming from Myanmar, Vietnam, Cuba, Laos, South Sudan and Mexico, were accused of being convicted criminals by the Trump administration and ordered to be deported in late May. After their countries declined to accept them, they were all set to be sent to South Sudan until U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy ruled that they had a right to challenge their convictions in court. 'This Massachusetts District judge is putting the lives of our ICE law enforcement in danger by stranding them in Dijbouti without proper resources, lack of medical care, and terrorists who hate Americans running rampant,' DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on social platform X. 'This is reprehensible and, quite frankly, pathological.' It is unclear how long the ICE officers and deportees will remain in Djibouti. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why is Dupont Circle important to DC's LGBTQ community? A look back
WASHINGTON - U.S. Park Police and DC Police confirmed on Friday that Dupont Circle would be closed for what may be the largest pride festival in the District's history, drawing criticism from DC leaders and the LGBTQ community. But why is Dupont Circle important in DC's Pride history? The backstory The first Pride festival was a block party organized by LGBT bookstore Lambda Rising in 1975, then located three blocks north of Dupont Circle on 20th and S St NW. The store closed in 2010, after 35 years of business. By 1981, a parade was added as part of the annual festivities, starting at Meridian Hill Park and ending at Dupont Circle. Parade routes in the 90s traveled along P Street through Dupont Circle before traveling south to Freedom Plaza. Dig deeper The larger Dupont Circle neighborhood has long been considered one of D.C. prominent gay neighborhoods. Every Halloween since 1986, a High Heel Drag Queen Race takes place on 17th Street, two blocks away from Dupont Circle. The race made headlines in 1991 when police arrested six men at the unpermitted event, using what many called "excessive force" to break up the revelry. An investigation into the officers followed, as well as an apology from D.C.'s then Mayor Sharon Pratt. Big picture view D.C. has a deep history of gay rights activism throughout the last six decades. In 1965, the DC chapter of the Mattachine Society picketed for gay rights in front of the White House – four years before the Stonewall Riots in New York City. Dr. Frank Kameny, a federal employee who was fired from his job for suspected homosexuality in 1957, served co-founded the Mattachine Society and organized the first of many White House pickets in the summer of 1965. Kameny told FOX 5 DC in a 1991 interview that D.C. had a "repressive kind of atmosphere" in the early 60s. "The vice squad had been set up … to, in effect, hunt down gays and create occasions for arresting us so that we could be thrown out of the civil service, out of civil service jobs, because at that point simply being gay was a disqualifier for federal employment," said Kameny. But Kameny also described the 60s as a "wonderful time to be doing anything and exciting and stimulating." "Nothing had been done and everything had remained to be done and we went out and did it. And we could, and we accomplished things," said Kameny. "Nowadays the road has a few more rocks. Watch more archival footage from D.C.'s Pride history on FOX LOCAL. The Source This story includes information from the National Park Service and previous FOX 5 DC reporting.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
US agents arrest two migrants at NY courthouse
US agents pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a New York courthouse Friday, wrestling them to the ground in a forceful display of President Donald Trump's crackdown on people without papers. The two men had just attended a scheduled hearing when plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, some wearing black face masks, grabbed them. The officers yelled for the men not to move or put up resistance and forced them to lay face-down on the ground as they tied their hands behind their backs and arrested them. The immigrants were then whisked away into an elevator on the 12th floor of the Jacob K Javits Federal Building in Manhattan. The routine appointment they hoped would be a step toward life in America ended in shock and detention. AFP was on hand to witness these events because there was a similar arrest at the same courthouse earlier in the week and the agency suspected more might be imminent. It was not immediately clear exactly why these two men were arrested nor the fate that awaits them. Trump was elected to a second term largely on a promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants and Americans largely support the idea. But polls show they also find tactics like surprise courthouse arrests by agents with black masks to be harsh. In recent weeks ICE agents have intensified operations like this in and around American immigration courts. After Trump swept back into power in January, the Department of Homeland Security revoked regulations that limited agents' access to protected areas like the courts. One of the men arrested was a 34-year-old Dominican named Joaquin Rosario who arrived in the United States a year ago, registered with authorities as he came in, and had his first immigration hearing Friday, said a relative of his, Julian Rosario, who declined to say how they were related. "He was at ease. He did not think anything was going to happen," said the relative, who was still visibly upset by what he had witnessed as agents threw the other man to the ground. Rosario was so unworried he did not even bother to have a lawyer with him, the relative said. The other detainee looked to be Asian. He arrived on his own and was accompanied by one of many immigration advocacy group volunteers who walk with such immigrants to and from the courtroom. The idea is to make them feel safe. This time the volunteers screamed out as the agents arrested the two men but this did nothing to halt the raid. Before this arrest other immigrants with appointments, including entire families, came and went with no problem. A pair of Venezuelans who refused to give their names were jubilant because their next appointment is not until 2027 -- that's how backlogged the US immigration court system is. - 'Sound the alarm' - Human rights groups are outraged by these operations, arguing that they sap trust in the courts and make immigrants wary of showing up for appointments as they try to gain US residency. "They're illegal abductions," said Karen Ortiz, herself a court employee who was demonstrating Friday against these sudden arrests of migrants. "We need to sound the alarm and show the public how serious this is and one way we can do that is actually physically putting ourselves between a masked ICE agent and someone they're trying to detain and send away," Ortiz told AFP. Since returning to power Trump has dramatically tested the limits of executive power as he cracked down on foreigners without papers, arguing that the United States is being invaded by criminals and other undesirables. af/dg/dw/sla
