Harvey Milk, an infamous practitioner of the “love that must not be named,” will have a ship named in his (dis)honor by the U.S. Navy. Milk became the first openly homosexual elected official in a major American city when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. His only noteworthy accomplishment as a city supervisor was his gushing support for Jim Jones of Guyana and Jonestown Kool-Aid fame.
He was shot to death a year later by a fellow supervisor and Democrat Dan White. White had resigned from the board but was prevented by Milk and Mayor George Moscone from un-resigning.
Milk violated Navy policy by enlisting in the military in the early 1950s when it was illegal for homosexuals to do so. He worked as a diving instructor until he was busted in a public park for engaging in activity which, according to Scripture, is an “abomination” in the eyes of God. He accepted "an other than honorable discharge" in 1955.
When Milk was in the military, he would seduce sailors on their way to Korea by inviting them to sleep in a comfortable bed in his apartment instead of crashing at the Y. It wasn’t until they got there that they discovered there was only one bed, a single bed, in the whole place.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer of San Diego could hardly contain himself when he heard the news about Milk and his ship. “This vessel,” he gushed, “will represent freedom and acceptance both here at home and abroad.”
Freedom and acceptance, that is, for everyone except for 16-year-old runaway Jack McKinley. McKinley was looking for a father figure in the 33-year-old Milk, but what he found instead was a pederastic rapist. Milk eventually dropped him like a hot rock when McKinley outgrew Milk’s taste for young males. Milk’s biographer said, “Harvey always had a penchant for young waifs with substance abuse problems.”
He told one gay lover, “As homosexuals, we can’t depend on the heterosexual model.…We should be developing our own lifestyle. There’s no reason why you can’t love more than one person at a time.”
After Milk discarded McKinley like a used Kleenex, Jack became mentally unstable and suicidal. When Milk was informed of McKinley’s plans to kill himself, his response oozed regressive compassion: “Tell him not make a mess.” Jack didn’t take Milk’s advice and threw himself off the roof of an eight-story building. Since the age of consent in California is 18, as a statutory rapist Milk belonged on a register of certified sex offenders.
Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council wrote, “Milk is famous only for winning one election, being murdered — and having sex with men.” Nevertheless, Milk has been celebrated with an opera, a 2014 postage stamp, a state holiday, a children’s picture book, and was played by Sean Penn in a movie of his life in 2008. He posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for some reason from Barack Obama in 2009.
His nephew Stuart Milk can’t wait for the ship to be completed over the next 18-24 months.
“I really think it sends an important message,” he said. “We will celebrate everyone.” Well, everyone but Jack McKinley.
Said Stuart Milk, “This sends an important green light message to anyone who was ever marginalized, diminished and not given their full recognition for who they were.”
Harvey Milk has received his full recognition. Jack McKinley is still waiting for his.
As Selwyn Duke said, “When we’re naming Navy vessels after pederastic rapists, we have to wonder how much longer the good ship America can stay afloat.”
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