‘Milk’ Star Sean Penn Rages at Trump, Hegseth for Renaming Ship Named After Gay Rights Activist Harvey Milk

Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and Milk star Sean Penn criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for ordering the United States Navy to remove the name of slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk from oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk.

Black and Penn won Academy Award for their work in the 2008 film Milk, and both criticized Hegseth for ordering the removal of Harvey Milk’s name from the ship, describing him as not seeming “like a smart man, a wise man” or knowledgeable, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

“I’ve never before seen a Secretary of Defense so aggressively demote himself to the rank of Chief PETTY Officer,” Penn said in an e-mail to the outlet.

In a statement to the outlet, Black claimed that the re-naming of the ship was “yet another move to distract and to fuel the culture wars that create division.”

“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 added. “It’s divide and conquer.”

The statements from Penn and Black came after reports surfaced that a memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy revealed that the Navy was preparing to change the name of the ship.

A “defense official” confirmed to Military.com that Secretary of the U.S. Navy John Phelan had been “ordered” to change the name of the ship by Hegseth:

A defense official confirmed that the Navy was making preparations to strip the ship of its name but noted that Navy Secretary John Phelan was ordered to do so by Hegseth. The official also said that the timing of the announcement — occurring during Pride month — was intentional.

Former U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced in July 2016, that there were plans to place Milk’s name on a “Military Sealift Command fleet oiler,” Breitbart News previously reported.

Milk, a Navy veteran, is described as having “effused the values of honor, courage and commitment as he fought to expand gay rights,” according to the Department of Veterans Affairs website.

From the Navy’s founding to the modern day, its members — active, reserve and civilian – are bound to the values of honor, courage and commitment. Navy Veteran Harvey Milk held onto each of those values throughout his civilian life with great care. When he made history by becoming California’s first openly gay elected official in 1978, it was clear that Milk had integrated the Navy’s core values into his activism. He effused the values of honor, courage and commitment as he fought to expand gay rights. 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.

“There’s a lot that Harvey did before my film fades in,” Black told the Hollywood Reporter. “He worked on Wall Street. He worked on Broadway. He was a school teacher and was in the Navy right here in California. Harvey always excelled at every single thing he did, including his work in the Navy.”

Black continued to describe Milk as being “a civil rights icon,” and added that “renaming a ship isn’t going to change that.”