‘These guys are idiots’: Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black name out executive’s Harvey Milk erasure

Sean Penn, the Oscar-winning actor of the 2008 Harvey Milk biopic Milk and Milk author Dustin Lance Black have spoken out in opposition to US protection secretary Pete Hegseth’s determination to take away the homosexual rights icon’s title from a military send.

“This is yet another move to distract and to fuel the culture wars that create division,” Black instructed the Hollywood Reporter in a telephone name on Wednesday. “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. It’s divide and conquer.”

Penn, who gained his 2nd absolute best actor Oscar for taking part in the previous San Francisco manager, added in an e-mail: “I’ve never before seen a Secretary of Defense so aggressively demote himself to the rank of Chief PETTY Officer.”

The order to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, christened in San Diego in 2021 for the outstanding homosexual rights and military veteran, used to be a part of an inside memo that used to be leaked on Tuesday. The Pentagon’s leader spokesperson showed that the send’s new title “will be announced after internal reviews are complete”.

The timing of the verdict for mid-June, a month intended to have fun the LGBTQ+ group, used to be reportedly intentional. The renaming is meant to verify “alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture”, regarding Donald Trump, Hegseth and military secretary John Phelan, in line with the memorandum.

“Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the commander in chief’s priorities, our nation’s history and the warrior ethos,” the Pentagon stated in a commentary.

“These guys are idiots,” Black instructed the Hollywood Reporter. “Pete Hegseth does not seem like a smart man, a wise man, a knowledgeable man. He seems small and petty. I would love to introduce him to some LGBTQ folks who are warriors who have had to be warriors our entire life just to live our lives openly as who we are.”

Milk, written by means of Black and directed by means of Gus Van Sant, depicted Milk’s political ascendancy in San Francisco, the place he was the primary publicly homosexual guy to be elected to public place of job when he gained a seat at the town’s board of supervisors. He used to be assassinated in conjunction with mayor George Moscone by means of former town manager Dan White in 1978. White used to be convicted on two counts of voluntary manslaughter and served simply 5 years in jail.

The USNS Harvey Milk used to be to begin with named in 2016 all the way through the management of Barack Obama. According to the leaked memo, Phelan could also be taking into consideration new titles for vessels named after such civil rights icons as Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harriet Tubman and Cesar Chavez.

“Harvey Milk is an icon, a civil rights icon, and for good reason,” Black stated. “That’s not going to change. Renaming a ship isn’t going to change that. If people are pissed off, good, be pissed off – but take the appropriate action. Do what Harvey Milk had said we need to do, and it’s about bringing back together the coalition of the ‘us’-es that helps move the pendulum of progress forward. Stop the infighting and lock arms again. That’s what Harvey would say.”