Elon Musk plans to move the headquarters of SpaceX from Hawthorne, California to Texas, according to a tweet from the billionaire SpaceX founder on Tuesday. Musk says the move is in response to a new bill in California that prohibits local governments from forcing teachers to notify parents if kids make gender identity changes in school.
“This is the final straw. 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 tweeted Tuesday while referencing tweets from tech investor Jason Calacanis and LibsofTikTok.
Musk explained in a follow-up tweet that his social media company X will make the move to Austin.
“Have had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building,” Musk tweeted.
The California law Musk is upset about, AB 1955, was passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature last month and comes in response to local school districts in California, including Chino Valley and Temecula, that have passed rules requiring teachers to tell parents when kids socially transition by changing their name or pronouns at school. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday and has outraged anti-trans bigots on X, the social media website owned by Musk.
Assemblymember Chris Ward, a Democrat from San Diego, authored the bill and told the L.A. Times that teachers shouldn’t be the “gender police.”
“Politically motivated attacks on the rights, safety, and dignity of transgender, nonbinary, and other LGBTQ+ youth are on the rise nationwide, including in California,” Ward told the newspaper. “As a parent, I urge all parents to talk to their children, listen to them, and love them unconditionally for who they are.”
But bigots like Musk are up in arms, claiming that schools today “indoctrinate kids” with “radical gender ideology,” as a spokesperson for the ironically named Center for American Liberty told the L.A. Times. Musk, it should be noted, is rather infamously estranged from his eldest child, who reportedly experienced conflict with Musk after she came out to him as trans.
It’s unclear what ramifications the move from Hawthorne may have on the company’s business relationships. Southern California is an important home to defense contractors with companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon, among a host of others, long having a presence in the region. But this isn’t the first time Musk has moved a company to Texas. The billionaire moved Tesla from Palo Alto, California to Austin in 2021 and even moved his own personal residence to the state.
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