Harvey Milk Day?

Sean Penn is putting his word behind his performance of slain activist Harvey Milk and will appear at a conference to help pass a bill that was vetoed last year, Variety reports:

Penn will appear at a news conference today in San Francisco with state Sen. Mark Leno, who’s announcing plans to reintroduce a bill designating May 22 Milk’s birthday a “day of significance” encouraging schools to conduct commemorative exercises on Milk’s life and contributions.

“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,” Leno said.

Activist Cleve Jones, a key character in Milk and a consultant to the film, is also scheduled to appear at the news conference, as are Assembly member Tom Ammiano, Geoff Kors of Equality California and Milk’s nephew Stuart Milk.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the same bill last year, introduced by Leno as an Assembly member. The governor said at the time that Milk should be honored in San Francisco but not statewide.