Former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander (D) on Wednesday dragged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “pretty immature” order for the U.S. Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a vessel named after a late LGBTQ+ rights icon.
Kander — a U.S. Army veteran — spoke to MSNBC about Hegseth’s ’80s “action movie”-like talk of “trying to restore a warrior culture” in the military, arguing that his move to rename the ship sends the wrong message to gay service members who will believe they can’t be part of such an “ethos.”
“That’s a real problem in a military that rightfully got rid of the law that forced Harvey Milk out of the military,” said Kander of Milk, who served in the Navy in the Korean War before being forcibly discharged due to his sexual orientation.
In 1978, Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. He was assassinated later that year.
The timing of the move to rename the ship — which is set to be announced next week in the heart of Pride Month — was reportedly intentional and reflects wider efforts to reimagine history under President Donald Trump.
Hegseth’s plan to strip the vessel of Milk’s name has sparked outrage among leaders in San Francisco and led to criticism from actor Sean Penn, who played Milk in the 2008 Oscar-winning movie named after the politician.
Kander stressed that it’s not a “bad thing” to remind service members about “what they’re serving for.”
“And you want to talk about a ‘warrior ethos,’ I mean, how about somebody who joins the military during a war as an officer, gets kicked out over their own objections and then goes on to fight for civil rights and gives their life for the cause,” he said of Milk.
“That’s probably the kind of thing that we want to remind our service members that America is about and what we’re fighting for in the first place.”
Moments earlier, Kander said the move by Hegseth — who once walked back controversial comments attacking gay service members — reflects what happens when you put a Fox News host in charge of the Pentagon, as “everything looks like a tweet.”
“This is like a tweet to troll gay people during Pride Month,” Kander said.
