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‘USS Harvey Milk’: US Navy Will Name Ship After Gay Rights Icon

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Licked your very last Harvey Milk stamp while mailing out your gas bill? Not to worry. The gay icon and legendary San Francisco politician is about to have a Navy ship named after him, if reports are to be believed.

Related: 10 Things About 2016 That Would Make Harvey Milk Beam From Ear To Ear

USNI News obtained a Congressional notification signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus that strongly suggests he’s sneakily planning to name a Military Sealift Command fleet oiler USNS Harvey Milk. 

The move will likely come to pass; Mabus has already named ships after several civil rights heroes, and the idea of naming a ship after the gay-rights activist has been floating around for several years. The USNS Harvey Milk would follow in the footsteps of USNS Medgar Evers (T-AKE-13) and USNS Cesar Chavez (T-AKE-14).

Related: Giving Us Hope: Harvey Milk’s Top 7 Quotes

Raised by a Navy family, Milk was a diving officer in San Diego for the Korean war until he was honorably discharged as a lieutenant junior grade. Shortly after, he became the first openly gay politician in California to be elected to office. Infact, when he was shot to death in 1978 , he was still wearing his U.S. Navy diver’s belt buckle.

According to nephew Stuart Milk, naming a ship after Harvey Milk “will further send a green light to all the brave men and women who serve our nation that honesty, acceptance and authenticity are held up among the highest ideals of our military.”

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