Harvey Milk Francisco had no idea. It was just a really brief, provincial, localized current events story that the mayor and a city council member in San Francisco were killed. It didn't have much reverberation." Milk's life has been the subject of a musical theater production; an eponymous opera; a cantata; a children's picture book; a French-language historical novel for young-adult readers; and the biopic "Milk", released in 2008 after 15 years in the making. The film was directed by Gus Van Sant and starred Sean Penn as Milk and Josh Brolin as Dan White, and won two Academy Awards for Best
Stuart Milk with then California First Lady Maria Shriver in designing the first public museum exhibit on Harvey Milk in Sacramento, and he accepted his uncle's medal and induction into the California Hall of Fame from the Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Harvey Milk Day (HMD) activities are now held around the world every May 22—Milk's birthday—and are facilitated annually by the Harvey Milk Foundation.. The foundation encourages organizers of Harvey Milk Day events to promote the unity of all marginalized minorities. Stuart Milk participated in efforts to have a U.S. postage stamp named for Harvey Milk, the first for a self-identified LGBT person.