Liberal actor Sean Penn offered a scathing assessment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after reports that the Navy is planning to remove the name of a gay rights icon from a ship in their fleet.
The Pentagon, under Hegseth, is allegedly preparing to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, an oiler named in honor of the late San Francisco politician, and Penn, who portrayed Milk in a 2008 biopic, is less than pleased.
Penn mocked Hegseth’s leadership in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday.
“I’ve never before seen a Secretary of Defense so aggressively demote himself to the rank of Chief PETTY Officer,” the actor remarked.
Just in: 🚨 Pete Hegseth has just ordered the Navy to rename USNS Harvey Milk. @PeteHegseth
Perfect timing for Military Appreciation month! pic.twitter.com/rQsvqIyFSN
— Jay 🇺🇸 Master Arborist 🌳 (@MasterArborists) June 3, 2025
According to internal documents, including a Navy memorandum cited by Military.com, plans are under review to rename the vessel, which had been christened to honor Milk’s legacy under the Obama administration.
“Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos,” said chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell.
“Any potential renaming(s) will be announced after internal reviews are complete,” Parnell added.
The timing of this possible change, just as Pride Month begins, is not going unnoticed by critics who view it as more than a coincidence.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted the Trump administration for the “shameful, vindictive erasure” of Milk and other civil rights advocates.
“Our military is the most powerful in the world — but this spiteful move does not strengthen our national security or the ‘warrior’ ethos,” she added. “Instead, it is a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country.”
Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who won an Academy Award for penning Milk, seized on the moment to accuse Hegseth of political theater.
He called the potential renaming “yet another move to distract and to fuel the culture wars that create division.”
Black maintained that the decision would do nothing to diminish Milk’s reputation. “That’s not going to change. Renaming a ship isn’t going to change that.”
He also argued that the motive behind the renaming was manipulative. “It’s meant to get us to react in ways that are self-centered so that we are further distanced from our brothers and sisters in equally important civil rights fights in this country,” Black said. “It’s divide and conquer.”
Black referred to Hegseth and his team as “idiots,” claiming the Secretary of Defense “does not seem like a smart man, a wise man, a knowledgeable man. He seems small and petty.”
Black, who has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ causes, also said he would “love to introduce him to some LGBTQ folks who are warriors who have had to be warriors our entire life just to live our lives openly as who we are.”
Milk, a former Navy officer himself, is viewed by supporters as a civil rights icon. He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, becoming the first openly gay man elected to public office in California. He was assassinated less than a year later by a disgruntled former colleague, Dan White.
In 2016, former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced plans to name a Military Sealift Command fleet oiler after Milk, citing his military service and advocacy for equality.
The Department of Veterans Affairs website describes Milk as someone who “effused the values of honor, courage and commitment as he fought to expand gay rights.”
The site continues, “Though his life was cut short after being assassinated less than a year in elected office, it was clear that his life and legacy exemplified the Navy’s core values.”
Milk’s assassination, along with that of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, shocked the nation. The announcement was made by then–San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Dianne Feinstein, who would later become one of California’s most prominent senators.
“Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed,” Feinstein told reporters in 1978. “The suspect is Supervisor Dan White.”
White later used what became known as the “Twinkie Defense,” blaming his diet and emotional stress for his actions.
Despite the double homicide, he was convicted only of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to seven years, sparking outrage and riots in San Francisco known as the “White Night” disturbances.
In a 2008 interview with SF Gate marking the 30th anniversary of the killings, Feinstein claimed that White’s motive wasn’t rooted in homophobia.
She believed that White felt betrayed by Milk, who lobbied not to reappoint him to the Board of Supervisors after he resigned over the position’s low pay.
Feinstein also revealed that after White was released from prison in 1984, then–Police Chief Con Murphy warned him not to return to San Francisco because “his chances of survival were not good.” White committed suicide in 1987.
As for the film adaptation, Feinstein said she didn’t intend to watch Penn’s Milk. “I think in my face you saw the pain of the day 30 years ago,” she said in that 2008 interview.
“I still have a hard time returning to it, and I’m not a masochist. I know what happened. I lived those times, and I’ve tried to learn from them in terms of the kind of public servant I am, and that’s really enough for me.”