Hegseth announces that USNS Harvey Milk is being renowned Usns Oscar V. Peterson

The Secretary of Defense, Pete Heghseth, announced on Friday that the USNS Harvey Milk will rename the USNS Oscar V. Peterson, after ordering the Navy to attack the name of the activist of gay rights pioneers of the ship.

Hegseth made the announcement in a Video posted in X.

“We are drawing the policy of the names of the ships,” said Hegseth. “We are not changing the name of the ship to anything political. It is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration. On the other hand, we are changing the name of the ship after a receiver of the Honor Medal of the United States Congress of the United States, as it should be.”

Peterson, said Hegesh, was a main campaign manager who posthumously received the medal for heroism during an attack on the USSHHO by Japanese bombers during the battle of the Coral Sea in World War II.

According to the Navy, Peterson kept the ship in operation and was attributed the salvation of the life of his boat partners before succumbing to his wounds.

The milk was also a veteran of the Navy, who attended almost four years in the service. He was discharged to the rank of a Lieutenant Junior after being threatened with a martial court due to his sexual orientation.

Milk was one of the first openly homosexual men chosen for a public office in the United States after winning a seat at the San Francisco Supervisors Board in 1977. He was killed a year later.

Hegseth ordered the Navy to change the name of the ship during the pride month, which celebrates the LGBTQ community.

Stuart Milk, Harvey Milk’s

He called Hegesh’s premise for the change of name of the oiler, that “people want to be proud of the ship in which they are sailing”, as “antithetic to truth.”

“Sometimes we take two steps forward and one step back,” said Stuart Milk. “This is a quite large step back.”

But “the fact is that my uncle’s legacy will live far beyond the life of 40 years of a military ship, but he has also supported enough,” he added.

The Church of Lindsay, executive director of the Defense Group, Minority Veterans of America, told ABC News that Hegseth is “the United States Cultural Warrior, and is taking that particular lens to lead the Department of Defense, instead of focusing on military preparation and what will really make Americans be safer.”

“We put that uniform, we are Americans. When we take off the uniform and continue to serve our country, we are Americans,” Church said.

There are currently no plans to change the name of other ships in this class, according to Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson.

The USNS Harvey Milk is part of a resupply oilers fleet that are named after civil rights defenders, including the president of the Supreme Court Earl Warren and the United States attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy.

While Hegseth said he wants to get the policy of the names of the ships, the effort is an inherently political effort.

Traditionally, the Secretary of the Navy, a designated politician confirmed by Congress, is in charge of appointing ships in the direction of the president.

Of the 15 most recently appointed aircraft carriers, 10 have been appointed by former US presidents and two for the members of Congress, according to the Congress Research Service.

In the past, Hegseth criticized the efforts of the Biden administration to change the name of the military bases that honored the confederate generals.

In the case of Fort Bragg in North Carolina, which was appointed more than a century ago after a Confederate General who lost battles in the civil war, Hegseth argued that the “legacy is important” and breaks a “generational link” for the people who serve there.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, said rename the Usns Harvey milk is different.

“In no way, Fort Bragg changes its name compared to a potential name change of the USNS Harvey Milk, which occurred very recently in 2016 under the administration of Obama and was widely seen as an ideologically moderate action that innumerable sailors and veterans found abhorrent,” Parnell said in a statement.

Alexandra Hutzler of ABC News contributed to this report.