Pete Hegseth is targeting a Jewish American hero — who’s next?
On June 3, it was revealed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename a ship that was dedicated in honor of the American Jewish gay rights advocate Harvey Milk.
This unusual move was scheduled by the current administration to coincide with Pride Month.
A relevant office memo stated that the renaming is in “alignment” with the President, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of the Navy’s “priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture.”
Among reactions to the news was that of the gay American Jewish playwright Harvey Fierstein, a gender warrior in his own right, who opined on Facebook that the current occupant of the White House is a “vile, petty, stupid, destructive, jealous, illiterate, hateful, ego-maniacal and dangerous shmuck.”
More temperately, gay Jewish California State Senator Scott Wiener informed the Los Angeles Times that the move was part of a “systematic campaign to eliminate LGBTQ people from public life.”
“They want us to go away, to go back in the closet, not to be part of public life. And we’re not going anywhere,” Wiener added.
Similar words might have been uttered by the redoutable Milk, who was praised in 2016 by then-U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, a Methodist from Mississippi, who noted that Milk had joined the Navy during the Korean War and served as a diving officer before receiving an “other than honorable” discharge because he was gay. Less than a year after being elected San Francisco city supervisor, Milk was assassinated by a political rival.
Secretary Mabus said of Milk: “Even after death, his voice still spoke, his struggles continued and his cause taken up by countless others.” [Continue reading…]