Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has vowed to relocate two firms in protest over a California regulation that may guarantee faculties would not have to inform dad and mom of a pupil’s gender identification requests.
He introduced his plans to maneuver the headquarters of aeronautics firm SpaceX and social media firm X to Texas on Tuesday over the newly handed regulation.
“That is the ultimate straw,” Musk stated on X.
“Due to this regulation and the various others that preceded it, attacking each households and firms, SpaceX will now transfer its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.”
The multi-billionaire additionally stated he’s transferring X from its art-deco headquarters in San Francisco to Austin, a menace he has made earlier than however by no means carried by way of.
Musk has already moved Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto in Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas.
“I did make it clear to Governor [Gavin] Newsom a few 12 months in the past that legal guidelines of this nature would drive households and firms to go away California to guard their kids,” Musk wrote.
Musk has expressed deep disdain about using most well-liked pronouns, typically mocking the observe on social media and dismissing it as a part of a “woke” agenda that was harmful for society.
What’s California’s new regulation?
California governor Gavin Newsom signed the invoice on Monday after a contentious legislative course of that pitted a handful of faculty boards combating for parental rights in opposition to LGBTIQ+ activists involved concerning the welfare of weak college students.
The regulation reversed selections in conservative faculty districts that ordered academics to inform dad and mom if a pupil modified their identify or pronouns or requested to make use of services or take part in applications that did not match their official gender.
Elon Musk has beforehand criticised Gavin Newsom, who’s a former San Francisco mayor, through the deadliest levels of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he challenged the choices of metropolis and state well being officers. Supply: AAP / Jessica Christian/AP
Newsom, who’s seen as a possible various to US President Joe Biden as a candidate for the White Home, has typically clashed with conservatives over gender points at state faculties.
Final 12 months, he signed a regulation that units fines for varsity districts that ban textbooks portraying LGBTIQ+ folks and different marginalised teams.
The most recent regulation got here after Newsom fought bitterly with a conservative faculty board over its opposition to the examine of homosexual rights determine Harvey Milk, a San Francisco public official who was assassinated.
The tech billionaire has additionally endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump, who vehemently opposes the Equality Act civil rights protections protecting gender identification and sexual orientation.
On Tuesday, the Wall Road Journal reported that Musk plans to donate $45 million a month to a pro-Trump fundraising group.
