Harvey Milk Name Removed- LGBTQ+ Erasure
Pride 2025 arrived without the usual feel-good corporate floats. At first, it felt like a quiet relief. But just below the surface, something more dangerous is unfolding: a deliberate and coordinated erasure. From the removal of Harvey Milk’s name from a U.S. Navy ship to the slow dismantling of queer lifelines like the 988 crisis line and SAGE elder support, the rollback of LGBTQ+ rights is happening in real time. Lesbian and Queer women are once again watching hard-won visibility and resources disappear.
Since we are part of the Queer community, we’ve seen this cycle before: when visibility is used to quiet us; when power dresses up as policy; when the most vulnerable in our communities are the first to be erased.
Here are five truths we know in our bones:
1️⃣ Neutral isn’t neutral—it’s a weapon.
They say it’s about “removing politics” from ship names and schoolbooks—but when they erase Harvey Milk, they’re not being neutral. They’re making space for silence. For shame. For closets we already fought our way out of. They’re trying to erase our legacies, our leaders, and our lives.
Lesbian poet and activist Adrienne Rich warned:
“When someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you are not in it… there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing.”
We’re not going back to invisibility. Not now. Not ever.
Let’s be clear: this is backlash—and it’s meant to scare us back into hiding.
2️⃣ When one of us is targeted, all of us are next.
Trans youth are on the front lines right now—but Lesbian and Queer Women visibility is being cut, too. From elder housing and medical funding to local libraries, our names, our stories, our history are disappearing from public life.
L3️⃣ We’ve lived through this before.
Some of us marched with ACT UP. Some of us held lovers’ hands during the AIDS crisis. We remember when we weren’t allowed to say the word “Lesbian” on public TV.
This moment is different—but the feeling is familiar.
Additionally, Audre Lorde once said: “Your silence will not protect you.” Many of us remember when being a Lesbian meant losing your job, your family, your safety. That memory isn’t weakness—it’s power. Let’s use it.
4️⃣ If we wait for someone else to save us, we’ll be waiting forever.
Furthermore, the 988 crisis line cut its queer-specific support. SAGE centers are losing both federal funding and corporate sponsorship. DEI programs are under attack. We organize. We educate. We protest. We prepare the next generation.
Because that’s what Lesbians do. We don’t just protest—we build alternatives.
What You Can Do Now
Show up for EQNM who are doing the real work with or without federal help.
Speak Harvey Milk’s name. Speak your own.
Let’s tell our stories while we still have breath. Archive them. Share them. Pass them down.
Come to our December Art Show in Albuquerque
33 Lesbian and Queer Women. One space at Homewise. Pure joy, resistance, and expression.
Get loud about disappearing services
From 988 to school textbooks, from cuts in senior services to school services, tell your community what’s being erased—before it’s gone.
Become a Social Media Ambassador for LesbianEarth.comOne
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❤️ Say yes to something rooted, real, and built by us
We don’t need permission to exist.
We just need each other.
With love and fire,
Your Lesbian World / LesbianEarth