Musk to move companies from California to Texas over gender identity law

(Patria) - Billionaire Elon Musk has announced that he is moving the headquarters of SpaceX and the social network X from California to Texas. He called the new law, signed on Monday by California Governor Gavin Newsom, which prevents school districts from requiring staff to inform parents about their child's gender identity change, the "last straw", AFP reported.

Elon Musk said he will move the headquarters of SpaceX and X to Texas after a California law blocked schools from forcing teachers to inform parents about students' gender identity changes.

"This is the last straw," Musk said on X the day after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that has intensified major culture wars in an election year.

"Because of this law and many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas," he said.

The multi-billionaire also said he is moving X, formerly Twitter, from its San Francisco headquarters to Austin, a threat he had previously made but never carried out.

"I’m tired of dodging violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building," Musk wrote.

Musk has already moved Tesla's headquarters from Palo Alto in Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, but still maintains an "engineering headquarters" in California. He has expressed deep contempt for the use of preferred pronouns, often mocking the practice on social media and dismissing it as part of a "woke" agenda that is dangerous to society.

Musk is the father of a transgender daughter with whom he has become estranged, and he blames her education at a private school in California for making her politically far-left and turning her against him.

Newsom enacted the law on Monday after a contentious legislative process involving several school boards battling for parental rights against LGBTQ activists. The law overturned decisions in conservative school districts that mandated teachers inform parents if a student changed their name or pronouns, or requested to use facilities or participate in programs that did not align with their official sex.

Newsom, who is considered a potential alternative to President Joe Biden as a Democratic candidate for the White House, has often exchanged fire with conservatives over gender issues in public schools. Last year, he signed a law that imposes penalties on school districts that ban textbooks depicting LGBTQ individuals and other marginalized groups.

He also fiercely battled a conservative school board over its opposition to the study of the life of gay rights activist Harvey Milk, a San Francisco public official who was assassinated.