Elon Musk said on Tuesday he will move the headquarters of SpaceX and X to Texas because a California law bans schools from requiring teachers to inform parents of students’ gender identity changes.
“This is the final straw,” Musk said on X.
“Because of this law and many others that have come before it that attack both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California to Starbase, Texas.”
The billionaire also said he was moving X from its art-deco headquarters in San Francisco to Austin, a threat he had made before but never carried out.
Musk has already moved Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto in Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas.
“I made it clear to Governor Newsom almost a year ago that laws like this would force families and companies to leave California for the safety of their children,” Musk wrote.
Musk has expressed deep displeasure with the use of preferred pronouns, frequently mocking the practice on social media and dismissing it as part of a “woke” agenda that is dangerous to society.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law Monday after a contentious legislative process that pitted some school boards fighting for parents’ rights against LGBTQ activists concerned about the welfare of vulnerable students.
The law overturned decisions by conservative school districts that had ordered teachers to notify parents if a student changes his or her name or pronouns or requests to use facilities or attend programs that do not match his or her official gender.
Newsom, who is seen as a possible choice to President Joe Biden for the White House, has often sparred with conservatives over gender issues in the state’s schools.
Last year, he signed a law that would impose fines on school districts that ban textbooks that depict LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups.
The latest law comes after Newsom fought a bitter debate with a conservative school board over opposition to a study of Harvey Milk, a gay rights advocate who was a San Francisco public official who was assassinated.
Musk has previously sparred with Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco, during the deadliest stretch of the Covid-19 pandemic, when he challenged the decisions of city and state health officials.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
