The US Navy has launched a ship named after gay rights activist and former service member Harvey Milk who was discharged because of his sexual orientation. The USNS Harvey Milk was launched in San Diego on Saturday in the presence of Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro and Milk’s nephew, Stuart, making it one of the six new ships to be named after US civil rights leaders including former Chief Justice Earl Warren and slain presidential candidate Robert Kennedy. “He has a less-than-honorable discharge. He was forced to resign because he was gay,” Stuart Milk said.

Milk was forced to resign in in 1955 after serving as a diving officer and Lieutenant on the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake during the Korean War. He was interrogated for weeks about his sexuality, according to BBC.

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He later became one of the first American politicians to publicly champion gay rights, elected in 1977 to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the first openly gay elected official in the history of California.

Before he and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by disgruntled former colleague Dan White on November 27, 1978, Milk had during his nearly year-long tenure sponsored a bill banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment on the basis of sexual orientation, which was passed 11–1 and signed into law by Moscone.

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Speaking at the ceremony, Secretary Del Toro said that it had been wrong that Milk had been forced to “mask that very important part of his life” during his time in the Navy.

“For far too long, sailors like Lt. Milk were forced into the shadows or, worse yet, forced out of our beloved Navy,” Del Toro said. “That injustice is part of our Navy history, but so is the perseverance of all who continue to serve in the face of injustice.”

The proposal to name a Navy ship after Milk was first floated by the Barack Obama administration in 2016 with then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announcing that six new oilers scheduled to be built would be named after civil and human rights leaders. 

(With inputs from Associated Press)