Elon Musk abandons California over trans law

SpaceX CEO and X owner Elon Musk has said that he will relocate the headquarters of both companies from California to Texas in response to a new law forbidding teachers in the Golden State from telling parents if their children identify as transgender.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the SAFETY Act into law on Tuesday. Hailed by activists as a safeguard against the “forced outing” of gay or transgender kids, the law forbids school staff from informing parents if their children identify as gay in the classroom, or use names or pronouns that differ from those on their birth certificates.

Critics slammed the bill as an infringement on parental rights.

“This is the final straw,” Musk wrote on X. “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.”

Musk explained that he 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.”

In a follow-up post, Musk said that he would relocate X’ HQ from San Francisco to Austin, Texas. “Have had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building,” he said, referring to San Francisco’s well-documented homelessness, drug abuse, and street-crime problems.

Musk previously described the “once beautiful and thriving” downtown area of San Francisco as “a derelict zombie apocalypse,” blaming the decline on decades of Democrat rule. Last August, the billionaire vowed to go to “war” with a law firm that was suing city authorities for clearing vagrants from the area.

Musk already moved Tesla’s HQ from the tech hub of Palo Alto in California to Austin in 2021, and moved his personal residence from California to Texas in 2020. Aside from distancing himself from coastal liberalism – which he has described as “the woke mind-virus,” the move allowed Musk to avoid tax on his personal income.

In 2023, Musk told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, that he blamed his transgender daughter’s liberal Los Angeles school for encouraging her to become “a full communist” and to sever all ties with her father the year before. 

“She went beyond socialism to being a full communist and thinking that anyone rich is evil,” Musk said of his now 20-year-old child. “I’ve made many overtures, but she doesn’t want to spend time with me.”

Musk has also spoken out repeatedly against child sex changes, stating last year that he  “will be actively lobbying to criminalize making severe, irreversible changes to children below the age of consent.”

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