Pride Marked With Dark Actions From Trump, Hegseth

Will You Stay Silent? Or, Will You Join Us To Fight For What Is Ours with Pride & Conviction?

By: Chris Gilmore*

As June begins—a month designated Pride in the United States and a time of celebration, remembrance, and resilience for the LGBTQ+ community—two intentional political moves have cast a shadow over what should be a season of affirmation for our community.

On June 3, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. Navy to remove the name of Harvey Milk, a Navy veteran and slain gay rights icon, from a fleet oiler that had borne his name since 2021. The USNS Harvey Milk had symbolized a rare and meaningful recognition of LGBTQ+ service members. But, they are now deliberately erasing Harvey Milk’s name, in favor of restoring a “warrior ethos” to the military, according to Military.com.

Representative Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the move “hateful and vindictive,” while the Pentagon and the NAVY have not yet commented on the decision.

Then, just days before on June 1 (the start of Pride Month 2025), President Donald J. Trump shared a post on Truth Social featuring a pink triangle overlaid with a red prohibition symbol. The pink triangle was used by the Nazi regime to find and persecute gay men in concentration camps. In the decades since, LGBTQ+ activists have reclaimed the symbol as one of survival and protest. To deface it is not just provocative—it is hateful. It further supports the averse and vitriolic rhetoric that characterizes Trump’s divisive actions toward communities that do not stand—nor are racially a part of—in favor of white supremacy or its racial salvation.

As journalist Sarah Posner wrote in Ms. Magazine, “Trump’s use of Nazi-era symbology is not subtle. He knows what the pink triangle stands for—and what it stood for in the camps. This is fascist messaging in broad daylight.”

Milk was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the country. He served in the Navy during the Korean War before being forced out due to his sexual orientation. His story is one of patriotic service and civic courage. Milk was assassinated in 1978. That is precisely what makes the removal of his name so egregious.

“This is not about tradition. It’s about exclusion,” Jennifer Dane, president of OutServe-SLDN, told The Associated Press. “To take his name off a ship just days into Pride Month is a political statement.”

These actions are not isolated incidents but part of a broader pattern of overt discrimination that the Trump administration and his cult following have shown. Since Trump has immunity granted by the Supreme Court for acts he commits in office, he knows he can very much act like the tyrant he is. During his previous term, Trump implemented a ban on transgender individuals openly serving in the military, as reported by The Rainbow Times (August, 2017).

This policy affected an estimated 15,000 transgender service members and was widely condemned by many. Jennifer Levi, the director of the Transgender Rights Project at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said then, “This unprecedented policy amounts to a purge of qualified, contributing troops, and will serve only to undermine unit cohesion and weaken military readiness.” That ban is back. Trump signed yet another Executive Order for it in 2025. Factually, Trump ran his 2024 campaign with more than one focus but made sure that anti-transgender political ads were a part of it, even though the U.S. transgender population is small and its members are only trying to exist and have rights to healthcare, etc., just like the rest of us do.

 

Intent and Timing

The timing of both actions is no coincidence. These are not isolated moves but part of a coordinated effort to send a message of rejection to LGBTQ+ Americans, as if the community weren’t already feeling discouraged at how states are using anti-LGBTQI+ legislation to segregate, delegitimize same-sex marriage, and simply hurt its members. But, the symbolism behind their actions and words is clear. The intent is clearer. And the consequences are real.

 

Youth & Adult Suicide Risks

The Trevor Project’s 2023 National Survey found that 41 percent of LGBTQ+ young people seriously considered suicide in 2022, with the number rising for transgender and nonbinary youth. The survey emphasized that “LGBTQ+ young people report that seeing LGBTQ+ people portrayed positively in the media and feeling accepted in their communities is associated with significantly lower suicide risk.”

Now consider what they’re seeing: a slashed pink triangle. A beloved icon’s name scrubbed from a military vessel. A president and his allies declaring that LGBTQ+ people do not belong—even in death.

The impact is compounded for LGBTQ+ individuals who are also people of color, immigrants or members of religious minorities. There are so many of us, tax-paying Americans, already navigating intersecting layers of marginalization. And these latest moves tell our community that they are being written out entirely.

Pride Month has always carried the tension of celebration and protest. But this year, it clearly demands we protest first. Political leaders who claim to uphold American values cannot remain silent while queer Americans are targeted in such visible and violent ways. We need our active allies or accomplices with us, through and through.

The past will show us what the present and future will be. Through Project 2025, Trump made it clear that he wanted to erase the community. That should have told us all about his deliberate and consciously crafted plans. But, if that were not enough, they gave us the blueprint to read—intently so—within the pages of the Heritage Foundation’s white supremacy, Christian nationalist Manifesto: Project 2025.

Harvey Milk once said, “Hope will never be silent.” Today, silence is complicity. And in this moment, in this “our documentary,” as Jane Fonda recently said. Silence helps strip ships of names, desecrate sacred symbols and endanger the very lives Pride Month seeks to uplift.

To read some other TRT coverage of Trump’s loathe against the LGBTQI+ community, see the linked stories below from 2017.

DNC: Trump, Rubio Further Dishonor Pulse Orlando Shooting Victims

Trump 2.0, Avoid Blow To LGBTQIA+ People

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*Chris Gilmore is a writer who focuses on LGBTQ+ rights and social justice.