Governor signs bill designating 'Harvey Milk' day

After he refused to support similar legislation last year, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill Monday that designates May 22nd each year as a state day of recognition for slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk.

Last year, the governor said local governments, not the state, should honor Milk. He didn’t say why he signed the “Harvey Milk Day” bill this year.

In 1977, San Francisco voters elected Milk to the board of supervisors. He was the first openly gay man elected to public office in a major city. A year later, a disgruntled former supervisor assassinated Milk and Mayor George Moscone.

Associated Press: "Harvey Milk Day" will not be a formal state holiday, so government employees will not be given the day off. The bill instead calls for the day to be observed by public schools as a day of special significance. Teachers will be encouraged to conduct exercises recalling Milk's life and contributions to the state.

The governor also signed a bill that gives same-sex couples married in other states or other countries full recognition under California law. The state won’t call them "married," unless they married before the passage of Proposition 8, the measure that outlawed same-sex marriages in California.

Gay rights groups hailed the new laws as “historic.” The Capitol Resource Institute, an organization that opposes gay marriage, called them “tragic news for California families.”