Sacramento, Oct 13 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s has signed a bill establishing “Harvey Milk Day” each May 22, Milk’s birthday, was announced Monday.

Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the city’s legislative authority, is to be honored with a state day of recognition. He is the second man in state to be fortunate enough to have a day named after him, after conservationist John Muir.

The Republican governor was against the idea a year ago. In the interim, Harvey Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August and was the subject of a movie ‘Milk’ for which Sean Penn won the Academy Award for best actor.

Penn spoke out in favor of the bill last spring, saying he didn’t want to insult Schwarzenegger’s intelligence by assuming the governor would again oppose creating Harvey Milk Day.

“He has become much more of a symbol of the gay community than he was a year ago because of those things,” Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said. “That made the difference from last year: he’s really come to symbolize the gay community in California.”

A spokesman for Governor Schwarzenegger said the publicity Milk and his work had received over the past year had been a factor in the governor’s 180 degrees change of view. “That made the difference from last year: he’s really come to symbolize the gay community in California.” Harvey Milk Day will be on 22 May, his birthday.