This week news that the Pentagon was moving to rename several ships named for civil rights leaders served as a reminder to San Diego's LGBTQ+ community that it's still in a fight for equality, leaders said at a news conference Friday.
First on the chopping block — the USNS Harvey Milk, a Navy supply ship named for the slain politician.
"Something is really wrong in America," said Nicole Murray-Ramirez, a longtime San Diego LGBTQ+ activist. "This is much more than trying to remove the name of Harvey Milk."
Murray-Ramirez knew Milk, the first openly-gay man elected to office in California. He said Friday the effort to strike Milk's name from the vessel — coupled with the new ban on transgender service members — is part of a broader effort by the Donald Trump administration to erase LGBTQ+ people from public life.
"We of the LGBT community will never be erased," Murray Ramirez said.
Milk was an officer in the Navy and Korean War veteran. He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978 and assassinated that same year by fellow supervisor Dan White.
Military.com first reported on the effort to rename the Harvey Milk Wednesday. The military news website also reported a Defense Department official said the news breaking during Pride month was intentional.
CBS News later reported several more John Lewis-class ships were also being considered for renaming.
A Pentagon memo written to brief Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the plan said renaming the ships was necessary to bring the service into alignment with the Trump administration's priority of "reestablishing the warrior culture."
John Lewis-class ships are Navy support ships crewed by civilian merchant mariners. They are not warships — hence the "USNS" designation versus "USS." They refuel Navy warships at sea and are built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego.
All ships of this class are named for civil rights leaders.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said Trump administration officials want to rename the Harvey Milk as an act of cruelty toward the LGBTQ+ community.
"This is happening during Pride month," Gloria said. "This is intentional and this is disgraceful. It is cruel and it is mean. And that's probably the point."
Gloria said the effort is indicative of the administration's attitude toward LGBTQ+ people, saying it "does not see us as fellow Americans, does not seen us as equal Americans."
Assemblyman Chris Ward, D-San Diego, said it's up to people in the community to make their voices heard.
"This is a continuation of an attack on a broader community that you have to speak up and protest out against, because ... the attacks are going to keep on coming."
The move to rename the Harvey Milk is the latest in a string of anti-LGBTQ+ policy initiatives from the second Trump administration.
On his first day in office, Trump declared in an executive order that people cannot be transgender and ordered the government to only recognize two sexes — male and female.
The Supreme Court is allowing a new Trump administration ban on transgender service members to take effect while the constitutionality of the policy is being challenged in lower courts.
Other ships being considered for renaming are the USNS Harriet Tubman, the USNS Cesar Chavez, the USNS Dolores Huerta, the USNS Lucy Stone, the USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the future USNS Thurgood Marshall — currently under construction in San Diego.
