Elon Musk has announced plans to relocate the headquarters for SpaceX and X from California to Texas following the passage of a new law in California that grants more freedom of gender identity to schoolchildren.
On Tuesday, Musk revealed that SpaceX would be moving its headquarters from Hawthorne, California to a location just outside Brownsville, Texas. He also stated that the headquarters for X would be relocated from San Francisco, California to Austin, Texas.
Musk attributed the decision to move to a law signed on Monday, which he described as the “final straw” prompting the relocation.
California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a groundbreaking law that prohibits school districts from mandating parental notification when a student changes their gender identity or sexual orientation.
“I warned Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws like this would lead families and companies to leave California to safeguard their children,” Musk explained in a follow-up message on X.
Musk has faced criticism for his past anti-transgender content on X and the platform’s history of implementing regressive policies concerning LGBTQ+ content. In 2023, a prominent LGBTQ+ advocacy group identified the platform, previously known as Twitter, as the most unsafe social media platform for LGBTQ+ individuals.
Tesla, the electric vehicle company where Musk serves as CEO, moved from Palo Alto, California to Austin in 2021 due to California’s high housing costs hindering the company’s growth.
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