(San Francisco, California) Fresh from his best actor Oscar for his performance as Harvey Milk, Sean Penn is pushing California to officially recognize the late gay politician’s birthday.

Last October Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) vetoed the same bill.

It would have set aside May 22 as Harvey Milk Day, designating it as a ‘day of special significance” in California.

It passed the legislature with little difficulty, but the governor said that while he respected the measure’s intent, he thinks Milk’s “contributions should continue to be recognized at the local level.”

Leno says Penn’s Academy Award shows that Schwarzenegger’s argument about Milk being only of provincial interest no longer holds up.

May 22 is Milk’s birth date. He would have been 79 this year.

Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 and shot to death a year later, along with Mayor George Moscone, by fellow supervisor Dan White.

White was convicted of manslaughter, and served a little more than three years in prison before committing suicide.

In the years since his death, Milk has become the most recognizable martyr of the gay rights movement.

Leno said the legislation was written to have no additional impact on the budget, and state workers and school employees would not get the day off from work.

Nevertheless, Republicans and other social conservatives mounted an intensive campaign against it.

Last May a bronze bust of Milk was unveiled at San Francisco City Hall. The bronze sculpture sits atop a stone base inscribed with a quote from one of his most famous speeches.

There already is a sculpture of Moscone outside San Francisco’s City Hall.