Political Notebook: 2028 prez candidates asked to support naming a Milk naval ship

An initiative co-led by LGBTQ veterans aims to see the 2028 presidential candidates pledge to name a new naval vessel in honor of the late gay San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk. Both the Democratic and Republican parties are also being asked to include doing so in their platforms adopted at their nominating conventions ahead of that November’s election.

In exclusive interviews with the Bay Area Reporter ahead of the Milk naval ship campaign being announced Thursday, several of its leaders detailed what they will be asking of the major parties and their candidates seeking to lead the country come 2029. One is a pledge that if elected president, they will nominate a secretary of the Navy supportive of naming a naval ship in honor of Milk, a Navy veteran who in 1977 became the first gay person elected to office in California only to be assassinated a year later.

“He served in the Navy and broke those barriers and died for his country. To me, that is what a (servicemember) is, someone willing to die for their country and keeps serving even when they are out of the military. That is what he did; he is a hero for all of us,” said gay U.S. Marine Corps veteran Bob Lehman, 60, for why a naval vessel should once again bear Milk’s name.

Nearly 40 years after the death of the civil rights leader, a replenishment oiler for the U.S. Navy was named the USNS Harvey Milk at a ceremony held in San Francisco attended by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. The Obama administration had announced the name in July 2016, and the ship embarked on its maiden voyage to San Francisco last year in March. (Milk and then-San Francisco mayor George Moscone were gunned down in City Hall November 27, 1978.)

But in June, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the 746-foot, all-civilian crewed vessel be stripped of its name. And at the start of Pride weekend, he announced it would be rechristened the USNS Oscar V. Peterson, in honor of the chief watertender on the U.S.S. Neosho who suffered burns and other fatal wounds during an attack by enemy Japanese aerial forces on May 7, 1942 during the Battle of the Coral Sea in World War II.

It was the second time a military vessel had been named in Peterson’s honor, as a U.S. Navy destroyer escort was christened the USS Peterson in 1943 and was in service until being decommissioned in 1965. Not wanting to see Peterson’s name be stripped from the oiler, the Milk ship naming initiative aims to see a different naval vessel be christened in the pioneering politician’s honor.

“We are asking for them to name a new ship,” said gay San Diego leader Nicole Murray Ramirez, who worked with Milk on the successful 1978 campaign to defeat a statewide ballot measure that aimed to ban gay and lesbians from teaching in California public schools.

In 1951, Milk had enlisted in the Navy and attended Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. By 1954, he was a lieutenant (junior grade) stationed at what was then called the Naval Air Missile Test Center in Ventura County in Southern California. Milk, a naval diving instructor, was on active duty during the Korean War aboard submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake (ASR-13).

As the B.A.R. first reported in February 2020, Milk was given an "other than honorable" discharge from the U.S. Navy and forced to resign on February 7, 1955 rather than face a court-martial due to having sex with other servicemembers, according to a trove of naval records obtained by the paper.

At an event Thursday (November 6) to induct another class into the Ben F. Dillingham and Bridget Wilson LGBT Veterans Wall of Honor housed at San Diego’s LGBTQ community center, Murray Ramirez will formally announce the USNS Harvey Milk Lives! A National Campaign, which he is leading as its national chair. He had first thought of naming a ship in honor of Milk in 2011 after the repeal of the military's homophobic "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

With the navy secretary normally the lone person who has final say over naval ship names, Murray Ramirez had the 70 North American chapters of the Imperial Court System, which he heads as the Queen Mother I of the Americas and Nicole the Great, send letters in support of a Milk ship to the military leader from members of the drag philanthropic organization and local officials, as the B.A.R. previously reported. His late father, Raymond Ramirez, served in the Army, and his gay brother, also named Raymond, is a Navy veteran.

“I was beyond devastated, hurt and, yes, angry and knew that we had to do something after getting so many calls and emails, especially from LGBTQ active duty personnel and veterans,” recalled Murray Ramirez about hearing the news that the Trump administration was de-naming the USNS Harvey Milk.

It was one in a series of anti-LGBTQ moves taken since January by the U.S. military under orders from Republican President Donald Trump during his second term in the White House. Transgender service members are again being drummed out and banned from enlisting, a policy being challenged in federal court by seven active-duty plaintiffs in the lawsuit Shilling v. Trump.

“If we don’t keep fighting, these rights will be taken away. Already, they have been taken away from our transgender sisters and brothers a second time,” noted Lehman, who was stationed aboard the USS Carl Vinson in the East Bay city of Alameda during his time as a service member and came out of the closet at age 21 while living in the Bay Area.

Lehman served from 1984 to 1993 until being honorably discharged. He went on to found San Diego’s Veterans for Equal Rights in 2000 with 64 veterans and served as its president until disbanding the group after DADT was repealed in 2011.

In 2008, he and his husband, Tom Felkner, were the first male same-sex couple to marry in California when it became legal to do so that June following a state supreme court decision. Fearing marriage equality will be the next right Republicans will attempt to rescind, Lehman signed on to serve as the California state chair for the Milk ship naming campaign as one way to fight back.

“They will come for us next. If we don’t stand up and organize for those issues, we will see those rights taken away again,” warned Lehman.

A number of other LGBTQ veterans or active duty personnel have also joined the Milk ship campaign as state chairs, including in Texas, Florida, Hawaii, Alaska, and Oregon. Already signed on as national honorary chairs of the campaign are Judy and Dennis Shepard, the parents of slain gay college student Matthew Shepard; gay San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria; gay Palm Springs City Councilmember and current ceremonial Mayor Ron deHarte; lesbian former Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski; gay former San Francisco supervisor Bevan Dufty; gay Metropolitan Community Churches founder the Reverend Troy Perry; and Milk confidante and gay union organizer Cleve Jones.

For Lehman, the symbolism of a Milk Navy vessel matters for myriad reasons.

“Serving in the military, I never thought I would be able to be out. It never happened when I was in. We were always afraid someone would find out and we will be fired and lose our careers,” said Lehman, who added having a Milk ship sail the seas again, “it symbolizes that fight we fought for and recognizes his service and recognizes every man and woman and trans person who has served that it mattered.”

To learn more about the campaign, visit usnsharveymilklives.com.

Local Veterans Day events
The 106th San Francisco Salute to Veterans Parade will kick off at 11 a.m. Sunday, November 9, in the city’s Fisherman’s Wharf area. Organized by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the parade starts on the Embarcadero at North Point Street, proceeds west on Jefferson Street, passes the reviewing stand on Jefferson Street near Leavenworth, and then disbands. The San Francisco Pride Band, the city’s official band, will be among the groups marching in it.

In Santa Clara County, the Office of Veterans Services is hosting its annual Stand Down event that brings together different county departments, community organizations, and other veteran service agencies under one roof so veterans and their families can access employment assistance, medical and dental screenings, mental health resources, legal aid, groceries, and more. It will be held at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Pavilion and Fiesta Hall located at 344 Tully Road in San Jose; veterans can take VTA buses for free to it.

The Stand Down takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, November 6, and Friday, November 7. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, November 8. Free to attend, lunch will be provided all three days.

At noon on Saturday Dr. Yvonne Darlene Cagle, an astronaut for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and consulting professor for Stanford University, will give this year’s keynote address as part of a Veterans Day Ceremony. Anyone interested in attending one of the Stand Down days can pre-register online .

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column reported on how the redistricting measure Proposition 50 could usher in a third out Southern Californian congressmember.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Threads @ https://www.threads.net/@matthewbajko and on Bluesky @ https://bsky.app/profile/politicalnotes.bsky.social .

Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email [email protected].