Harvey Milk Day

Sean Penn and California Senator Mark Leno during a press conference announcing legislation to create a Harvey Milk Day in California March 3, 2009 in San Francisco, California.
"Penn, who won the Academy Award for best actor for his portrayal of the first openly gay US politician to win high office in Gus Van Sant's Milk, will appear at a news conference in San Francisco to express his support. California senator Mark Leno is behind the bid to have 22 May recognised as a "day of significance".

State governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the same bill last year, suggesting that Milk should be honoured only in his home city of San Francisco, where the camera shop owner became known as the "Mayor of Castro Street" due to his influence in the city's gay district.

Leno, the first openly gay man to serve in the California senate, believes Penn's Oscar success suggests that Milk's life and work is of interest to people beyond San Francisco and the community he represented. "Given California's fiscal crisis, the bill was written to have no cost to the state, and state workers and school employees would not get the day off from work", he said in a statement.
Activist Cleve Jones, who was played by Emile Hirsch in Van Sant's film, will also appear at the conference, as will Milk's nephew Stuart Milk. Harvey Milk himself was assassinated in 1978 by Dan White, a fellow city supervisor who had recently lost his position". Source: www.guardian.co.uk