In a stunning display of homonationalism previously seen only in dubiously tasteful political cartoons, the U.S. Navy has named a ship after the late LGBTQ+ rights trailblazer and anti-war activist Harvey Milk. Notably, this is the same U.S. Navy that dishonorably discharged Milk for being gay in 1955, but more than 40 years after his death he’s got a ship now, which means that they’re basically even, right?
The ship launched from San Diego, California on Saturday morning, and is one of six inaugural fuel ships in a new class named after the late civil rights activist John Lewis, according to NPR. Lewis also famously hated war and, in the words of the New York Times, “routinely voted against military spending.” Good thing these babies only cost roughly $650 million, not including annual operating costs. What’s more, the Navy has apparently set aside $3.2 billion for the first six of these ships, and plans to procure 20 in total, according to a press release.
While the John Lewis class of ships themselves are not technically actual warships, they will be used to transport fuel and dry cargo to fleets of actual warships so as to make Doing An Imperialism that much smoother. Appropriately, the ship was sponsored by renowned warmonger Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Paula Neira, a trans Navy veteran who works in trans health at Johns Hopkins University, according to a press release. To christen the USNS Harvey Milk, Neira smashed a bottle of champagne on the hull of the ship in a “time-honored Navy tradition.”
“Leaders like Harvey Milk taught us that diversity of backgrounds and experiences help contribute to the strength and resolve of our nation,” said Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro in the press release. “There is no doubt that the future Sailors aboard this ship will be inspired by Milk’s life and legacy.”
Stuart Milk, Harvey’s nephew and the co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation, said at the ceremony that “this navy ship sends an important message into the world.”
Conveniently, however, neither the younger Milk nor Del Toro mentioned that Harvey was vocally opposed to war later in life. Milk himself was a veteran who joined the Navy during the Korean War, but as previously mentioned, he was dishonorably discharged and reportedly forced to describe the gay sex he had had in a 152-page document. In 2016, when it was first announced that the Navy would name a ship after Milk, LGBTQ+ publication the Advocate reported that he regularly demonstrated against the Vietnam War, and was even fired from his job when he burned his Bank of America card to protest the invasion of Cambodia.
The ship is about as literal of a case of pinkwashing, or the attempt to cover up harm with a “progressive” “LGBTQ+ inclusive” image, as one might imagine. As lawyer and activist Dean Spade told them. in February, “inclusion in the military, like marriage equality, does nothing to redistribute wealth, stop police violence, housing and health care crises plaguing queer and trans communities. It does nothing to address the fundamental harms of the criminal system, the immigration system, or the military, itself.”
Indeed, many have criticized the Biden administration for its continued detention of trans people in ICE facilities and failure to accept LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in an extension of a Trump-era policy that Business Insider called “the most radically anti-asylum policy in 70 years.” While this is not universally true of all migrants’ circumstances, it’s also worth noting that many refugees are forced to flee their home countries due to destabilization caused by — what else — U.S. military intervention.
In addition to the wider implications, it’s hard not to think about how the $650 million for the USNS Harvey Milk could have otherwise been put to use for actual change for queer and trans folks at home, especially in the midst of a historically bad year for trans people. That money could have been invested in social services that could have prevented the deaths of the 44 trans Americans who have been reported killed this year, which is a tie for 2020’s record-breaking high of fatal anti-trans violence. There are so many surgeries, needles, food supplies, binders, breast forms, medications, housing needs that could have been covered with $650 million, especially for a demographic that was significantly more likely to experience financial devastation in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic than the general population.
But hey, on the bright side, we’ve got a cool boat now, with several other cool boats named after civil rights icons such as Sojourner Truth and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren to come. Who needs paid sick leave when you’ve got some sick boats???
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