Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday the USNS Harvey Milk is being renamed the USNS Oscar V. Peterson, after he ordered the Navy to strike the name of the pioneering gay rights activist from the ship.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the new name for the naval ship USNS Harvey Milk will be the USNS Oscar V. Peterson. "We are taking the politics out of ship naming," Hegseth said in a statement to officially announce the name change.

When news first broke that Hegseth planned to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, among those to react was actor Sean Penn. He played Milk in the movie of the same name. The 64-year-old Oscar-winner told The Hollywood Reporter, “I’ve never before seen a Secretary of Defense so aggressively demote himself to the rank of Chief PETTY Officer.”