The underlying event is true: In October 2024, the Royal New Zealand Navy vessel HMNZS Manawanui (a dive and hydrographic support ship purchased for approximately NZ$103 million, often reported as around $100 million NZD) ran aground on a reef off Samoa while conducting a survey, caught fire, and sank. This was New Zealand’s first unintentional naval vessel loss since World War II (and the first in peacetime). All 75 people on board were safely evacuated, with no lives lost.

The commanding officer was Commander Yvonne Gray, a highly experienced officer with 30 years in naval service (starting in the UK Royal Navy in 1993, then joining the RNZN after moving to New Zealand in 2012 with her wife). This was her first ship command.

However:

•  Commander Gray is not publicly identified or highlighted in official sources as “lesbian” in the context of her command—that’s a detail amplified in biased online commentary and memes.

•  The headline in the image (“New Zealand lesbian Navy commander sinks a $100 million naval vessel…”) is inflammatory and false as presented. It’s a doctored screenshot designed to mock diversity in the military, spread widely on social media and sites like Not the Bee, Human Events, and Reddit threads criticizing “DEI hires.”

•  Official investigations (including a 2025 Court of Inquiry report) attributed the sinking to human error (failure to disengage autopilot properly, leading to loss of control), compounded by crew training issues—not the commander’s gender or personal life.

•  New Zealand’s Defence Minister Judith Collins publicly condemned misogynistic and homophobic trolling targeting Commander Gray, stating explicitly that her gender (and by extension, other personal attributes) had nothing to do with the incident.

The meme exploits a real tragedy for political point-scoring, ignoring that Commander Gray was praised for her decisive evacuation that saved everyone aboard. The sinking was due to operational errors, not identity.