Reactions are streaming in across the Bay Area and beyond to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's Pride Month shot across the bow at the queer community, announcing his intention to strip the name of LGBTQ civil rights icon Harvey Milk from a Navy ship.

Most notably among these reactions is that of Stuart Milk, nephew of the late San Francisco supervisor and civil rights crusader.

"So I don’t think he’d be surprised," Stuart Milk tells NBC Bay Area, "but he’d be calling on us to remain vigilant, to stay active."

Milk adds that he's reached out to the Pentagon about the memo from Hegseth, saying, "our hope is that the recommendation is put aside, but if it’s not, it will be a rallying cry not just for our community but for all minority communities."

An early activism acolyte and City Hall aide to Milk, Cleve Jones, also spoke about the move Tuesdsay, telling NBC, "Yes, this is cruel and petty and stupid, and yes, it’s an insult to my community."

Jones adds, "I would be willing to wager a considerable sum that American families sitting around that proverbial kitchen table this evening are not going to be talking about how much safer they feel now that Harvey’s name is going to be taken off that ship." Milk suggests this is all just a distraction from the administration's proposed cuts to programs for the poor, like Medicaid, and the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

Governor Gavin Newsom similarly blasted Hegseth, calling the move, "A cowardly act from a man desperate to distract us from his inability to lead the Pentagon."

In addition to stripping Milk's name from the oil transport ship USNS Harvey Milk, the Navy is also reportedly considering changing the names of a group of ships that were named as part of what's called the John Lewis-class ships, which were all named for figures in American civil rights history. These include ships that bear the names of former Supreme Court justices Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as well as Harriet Tubman, Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, and Medgar Evers.

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday about the name change proposal, "Our military is the most powerful in the world – but this spiteful move does not strengthen our national security or the 'warrior' ethos. It is a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream."

The naming of the USNS Harvey Milk occurred in 2016, under Obama-era Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. The ship was then christened and launched during the Biden administration, in 2021.

"A man who served with honor — erased to send a message," says progressive veterans' group VoteVets in a statement. "This is a deliberate insult to LGBTQ Troops and Americans that weakens our force and shreds the values we fight for."

"The Secretary of Defense has prioritized making sure that we don’t have ships named after people who honorably served but don’t fit his 1980s action hero vision of what they should look like," says Marine Corps veteran and VoteVets senior advisor Janessa Goldbeck. "This is what our Secretary of Defense is doing, when we have global conflict, when we have increasing threats to the United State, and we have a recruiting crisis... What are we even doing here?"

The Pentagon has yet to comment on or confirm that the renaming process is happening.

Previously: Pete Hegseth Orders the Navy to Strip Harvey Milk’s Name Off Naval Ship

Top image: Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Maxwell Orlosky/U.S. Navy