Navy to name ship after gay rights icon Harvey Milk

The Navy plans on naming a ship after the late gay rights activist and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus signed a July 14 Congressional notification indicating the proposed christening, USNI News said Thursday.

{mosads}The planned ship is a John Lewis-class oil rig, a class named after Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). Mabus has vowed the Navy will name ships in that class after civil rights icons.

Other names in the class include former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, women’s rights activist Lucy Stone, former Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren and abolitionist Sojourner Truth.

Milk, who came from a Navy family, served as a diving officer in San Diego during the Korean War on the submarine rescue ship Kittiwake until 1955. He was honorably discharged as a lieutenant grade junior.

Milk was later elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, making him the first openly gay politician to hold elected office in California.

Milk was shot and killed in 1978, reportedly while wearing his Navy diver’s belt buckle. He has since become an icon in the LGBT community.