WorldNetDaily has always hated pioneering gay activist Harvey Milk — writers like Peter LaBarbera have bashed him over the years, one article had a major meltdown aver him getting honored with a postage stamp, and another article freaked out over the idea that Milk’s former camera shop in San Francisco might be honored with a landmark designation. So when defense secretary Pete Hegseth pulled the conservatively correct move of renaming a ship named after Milk, a Navy veteran, WND heartily approved. An anonymously written June 3 article stated:
As part of the Trump administration’s ongoing purge of DEI policies, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the U.S. Navy to rename a ship that had been named for controversial homosexual-rights activist Harvey Milk, who served as a sailor during the Korean War.
Miltary.com reports that Navy Secretary John Phelan put together a small team to rename the replenishment oiler and that a new name is expected this month, which culturally is known as “Pride Month,” in celebration of various sexual proclivities.
The change was laid out in an internal memo officials said defended the action as a move to align with President Donald Trump and Hegseth’s objectives to “reestablish the warrior culture.” It also comports with the president’s order to purge the federal government of so-called DEI policies.
Needless to say, the article served up the usual right-wing sliming of Milk:
The activist was not without his detractors, however, partly based on his sexual activity with minors. A 2009 column at WND explains some of the sordid details of Milk’s life, including as a predator of young males, as documented by homosexual author Randy Shilts in his 1982 biography of Milk, “The Mayor of Castro Street.”
Wrote Peter Sprigg:
“Milk … exploited his time in the Navy during his political career – by lying about it, claiming falsely that he had received a dishonorable discharge for his homosexuality. Milk ‘knew the story would make good copy,’ according to Shilts. ‘Maybe people will read it, feel sorry for me and then vote for me,’ Milk told one campaign manager.”
[…]Sprigg notes that when then-President Obama posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk, “it may mark the first time in history that the nation’s highest civilian award has been granted primarily on the basis of someone’s sex life.”
When the renaming actually took place, Bob Unruh cheered in a June 27 article:
A U.S. Navy ship that previously was saddled with the “Harvey Milk” name in a move that promoted the LGBT lifestyle choices, as Milk was a homosexual activist who was shot and killed in San Francisco, has been renamed. As WND reported, the Pentagon announced earlier this month that the ship would be renamed.
The vessel, a fleet replenishment oiler, now honors Oscar V. Peterson, a Medal of Honor recipient who was injured while saving his ship in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
As usual, Unruh didn’t explain how not being heterosexual is a “lifestyle choice.” He then bizarrely framed Milk’s 1978 murder as being “a victim of that state’s violence.”