Musk Vows to Move X, SpaceX to Texas After California Passes Gender Law
A day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that prohibits forcing educators to notify families if a student’s gender identity changes, Elon Musk took to X to announce that this was the “final straw” and that he would be relocating the headquarters for his social media platform and SpaceX to Texas.
“Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas,” wrote Musk, who added in another post that he had made “it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children.”
The bill, which is the first of its kind in the nation, aims to protect the privacy and safety of transgender and nonbinary students, while still allowing parents to access their children’s school records. The new law does not allow minors to legally change their name or gender identity without parental consent.
“This law helps keep children safe while protecting the critical role of parents,” Brandon Richards, a spokesman for Newsom, said in a statement (via Washington Post). “It protects the child-parent relationship by preventing politicians and school staff from inappropriately intervening in family matters and attempting to control if, when and how families have deeply personal conversations.”
Although Musk voted for Biden in the 2020 election, he has since embraced Republican politics and used X to endorse antisemitic conspiracy theories, spread anti-immigration rhetoric, and target diversity initiatives. The Tesla CEO fully endorsed Trump last weekend, following a failed assassination attempt against the former president, and Musk recently pledged to contribute around $45 million a month to a new pro-Trump Super PAC leading up to the 2024 election.