On Monday, California governor Gavin Newson signed assembly bill (AB) 1955 into law. The bill, dubbed the SAFETY Act, aims to protect trans children by prohibiting and invalidating local governments or school boards from creating their own rules that force teachers to out their students. It states, ”a school employee shall not be required to disclose any information related to a pupil’s LGBTQ+ identity to any other person without the pupil’s consent.” Parents can still request school records, though.
Naturally, this caused temper-tantruming and fear-mongering from the worst bad faith actors on the right. The walking piece of human garbage behind the Libs of TikTok account Tweeted her usual ignorant, hateful nonsense to rally the troops into selectively caring about children’s safety in the classroom. Elon Musk is one of those loyal foot soldiers who believes he’s a general, but he’s barely a second lieutenant. When tech investor bro Jason Calacanis retweeted the LoTT post about the new law, Space Karen wanted in on the action, too. So, he used that moment to announce that he’s protesting a law that keeps trans kids, like his own daughter, safe by moving the SpaceX headquarters from California and into Starbase, Texas and X’s headquarters to liberal bastion, Austin.
“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.
Meh. I don’t even know what to say anymore. He’s a horrible human being with too much money and terrible beliefs. Just the other day, months after saying that he would stay out of the 2024 US elections, Elno announced that he’s committed to donating $45 million per month to a pro-Trump super-PAC. It never ceases to amaze me that the people who cry the loudest about their civil liberties are the ones who most want to take them away from others. As a parent, I also cannot wrap my mind around being so closed-minded that you look at a vulnerable group of children and make what they’re going through all about yourself. These a-holes never stop to think, “Maybe my beliefs are the reason that my kid doesn’t feel safe coming out to me.”
And 𝕏 HQ will move to Austin https://t.co/LUDfLEsztj
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024
You bent the knee. pic.twitter.com/5CNAWvZFSv
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 16, 2024
photos credit: Olivier Huitel / Avalon, Stefano Carofei / Agenzia Sintesi / Avalon