Kip Currier, Ethics, Info, Tech: Contested Voices, Values, Spaces; They Are All Warriors, Too.
Late yesterday afternoon I saw the following Guardian article: Hegseth orders US navy to strip Harvey Milk name from ship amid Pride month. That generated two reactions:
Oh, no...Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth couldn't have done such a mean-spirited, petty thing, right?...
And, oh, yeah...this is exactly the kind of thing Hegseth would do. Especially with Pride Month just underway.
What was the Pentagon explanation for why this was done? The article says that "The renaming is being done to ensure “alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture”, referring to Donald Trump, Hegseth and Phelan, according to the memorandum."
It goes on to note that not just the USNS Harvey Milk but more than half a dozen naval ships named for civil rights pioneers will be stripped of their names and renamed:
"Documents reviewed by CBS showed that vessels on the US navy’s “recommended list” include USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez and USNS Medgar Evers."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/03/harvey-milk-ship-name-hegseth
A few points in rebuttal to Hegseth and those who support this decision:
The timing of this action is clearly not an accident. It was unveiled at the beginning of June's Pride Month, the month-long recognition of LGBTQ+ people and their long-waged civil rights efforts to be legally recognized and included in all aspects of societal life, like other Americans.
At the same time as Hegseth's announcement, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on June 3 that the Trump Administration would not be recognizing Pride Month. Leavitt added that “I can tell you this president is very proud to be a president for all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed.” Leavitt's words on behalf of Trump may sound good to some, but there's really no substantive meaning or truth behind the platitude. To the contrary, the actions of the Trump administration indicate that Trump is in fact not a "president for all Americans." As just one example among many, recall that this is the president who decided via a "Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness" executive order on January 27, 2025 that transgender persons will no longer be permitted to serve in the U.S. military, a decision that was upheld by a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court on May 6. How is that decision playing out in our society? The Advocate reported on June 3 that Cadets who met all Air Force Academy graduation standards denied commissions because they're transgender. Consider the fundamental unfairness of this new reality for persons who have committed themselves to serving this country. Keep in mind as well that all branches of the U.S. military have been unable to meet their recruiting goals in recent years, except for the U.S. Marines and Space Force. Transgender persons, like these Air Force Academy graduates, are ready, willing, and more than able to serve. Yet, they are being ushered out of all military branches under this president.
It's important to note that among the naval ships set to be renamed, three of the people for whom those ships were named are veterans: Harvey Milk (U.S. Navy), Cesar Chavez (U.S. Navy), and Medgar Evers (U.S. Army). Milk served for four years and was forced out of the Navy in 1955, with an "other than honorable" discharge because he was openly homosexual. Evers served for three years, from 1943-1946, in a segregated army unit during World War II. Chavez served two years in the Navy, from 1946-1948, and was placed in a unit for persons of foreign descent. We can easily imagine if we were to place ourselves in the shoes of these three veterans how the experience of being categorized and set apart from other people in ways that discriminate them from one another might affect us and impel us to work for inclusion and equal treatment, which all three of these men would later do. Moreover, all three of these veterans enlisted of their own free will and were part of a military warrior culture that was ready to fight for freedom and protect democracy.
The other civil rights activists and notable historical figures for whom the naval ships were named, such as Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman and suffragist and slavery abolitionist Lucy Stone, did not serve in the U.S. military. However, each of these individuals in their own way represents the spirit of a warrior. Each person confronted significant obstacles and discriminatory treatment, both as individuals and members of groups that suffered from systemic unfairness and disadvantage. Yet, they all found the courage and strength within themselves to fight back against unjustness to help our country become "a more perfect union".
America is an exceptional nation that has been a beacon for the ideals of democracy for nearly 250 years. Yet, the patchwork of American history is also made up of time periods in which those ideals were not realized and groups experienced discrimination, ostracism, and injustice. One of the ways we can work toward becoming a more perfect union is by acknowledging that past and the inherent value of individuals and the various communities within which they are situated. Honoring the societal achievements of individuals from groups that have experienced intolerance and unjust actions by naming military ships after them is a way to promote "representation" of these groups; groups who are all too often unseen and unrecognized. It's a way of saying "we see you", "we know you are here", "we value you". Hegseth's stripping the names of civil rights contributors from these ships is an effort to send the opposite messages; namely, "we don't see you or welcome you", "you don't exist and we don't want you here", "you are of no importance and do not matter". Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, counters the negative messaging of people like Hegseth by providing free LGBTQ+ ally signs that people can display in their yards. One of the designs says: We see you. We love you. We stand with you. Another design simply says Lebo [the township's nickname] sees you!
Returning to the topic of the timing of this development, the cruelty and spitefulness of Hegseth stripping these naval ships of their names, and doing it during Pride Month, is indeed the point. The announcement was made at this time to try to make people feel bad who believe in the morality and legitimacy of recognizing people and communities that have experienced discrimination. Hegseth's actions are both a tacit and implicit message to members of the communities from which these honorees came that "you don't matter", "you aren't part of this America anymore", "we who are in power can literally erase you from history and existence at any time". It's also part and parcel of the "culture and history wars" that the Trump administration is waging against libraries, museums, and the arts, as Margaret Sullivan identifies in her June 2, 2025 Guardian piece "Parks, libraries, museums: Here's why Trump is attacking America's best-loved institutions". As Sullivan observes, drawing from the work of 20th century authoritarianism expert Hannah Arendt (author of a series of articles in 1963 on the "Banality of Evil"):
Take away natural beauty, free access to books and support for the arts, and you end up with a less enlightened, more ignorant and less engaged public. That's a public much more easily manipulated.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/02/national-parks-libraries-museums-trump
Here's the thing about Hegseth's erasure of the names on those naval ships, though: each one of the people for whom those naval ships was named experienced years and years of being erased, of being segregated, of being "othered". But they still manifested a warrior ethos and pressed on. They never gave up. They persevered. And they made progress and advances for themselves and others who like them were experiencing unfair treatment and inequality. Despite the Pete Hegseths of the world then and the Pete Hegseths of the world now. I picture each one of them (and Dolores Huerta as of this writing is still alive and with us at the age of 95), shrugging their shoulders, saying something like "consider the source" in reacting to Hegseth's actions, and getting back in the game to fight for social justice and human dignity for disadvantaged people as well as everyone.
Finally, it's vital for us to put Hegseth's behavior in perspective: his time as Secretary of Defense will one day end. His edicts and pronouncements that attempt to make lasting policy relating to the worth of others won't last forever. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." And a less well-known observation made by Dr. King in 1956 is good for us to always keep at hand:
"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom."
https://www.si.edu/spotlight/mlk?page=4&iframe=true
Hegseth's actions can be undone. And no matter what Pete Hegseth does to the names of human rights pioneers on a ship, the legacies of those honorees are still intact and unbroken. Those honorees held on to an intrinsic sense of their own value and goodness in spite of the adversities they faced. Hegseth cannot strip them of that. And here in the present, he can't strip that same sense of value and goodness from any person who finds themselves in a group that Hegseth and his ilk demean and devalue.
Ultimately, Hegseth doesn't get to define for all of us who a warrior is. Yes, as the head of the Defense Department for this short period of time as a public servant he can talk about "warrior culture" and institute policy changes. But he can't really define what a warrior is unless we cede that ground to him. Indeed, there are countless ways to be a warrior in this world and still maintain a sense of decency, compassion, and respect for the dignity of all human beings.
Each of us can define for ourselves what it means to be a warrior. And we can thank and say the names of the warriors -- those who are are veterans and those who have served in other ways -- who have fought and sacrificed for all of us (in alphabetical order below), while keeping their memories alive and ensuring that others can learn about them and be inspired to become warriors for good, too.
Cesar Chavez (1927-1993)
Medgar Evers (1925-1963)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020)
Dolores Huerta (1930- )
Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)
Harvey Milk (1930-1978)
Lucy Stone (1818-1893)
Harriet Tubman (1822-1913)
