Elon Musk’s X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is abandoning its birthplace. The social media giant will shutter its San Francisco office, marking the end of an era for the company that was founded there in 2006.
CEO Linda Yaccarino informed employees of the decision in an internal email, revealing plans to relocate staff to existing offices in San Jose and Palo Alto.The move comes as no surprise given Musk’s well-documented disdain for the city and his previous criticisms of its political climate.
In July, Musk announced on X that he would be relocating the headquarters of his companies X and SpaceX from California to Texas, citing a new California law banning school transgender notification requirements as his reason for leaving. “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 wrote.
What is the California law that Musk is dead against
The California law bars schools from requiring staff to disclose a student’s gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation without the student’s permission. It overrides previous policies passed by local school boards that required management to tell parents if their children showed signs of being transgender.
The reason Musk is said to be so much against this law is that in 2020, amid the Covid pandemic, his 16-year-old son Xavier Alexander Musk came out as trans but didn’t inform him, according to Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson. Instead, Xavier texted Elon’s sister-in-law: “Hey, I’m transgender, and my name is now Jenna. Don’t tell my dad.”
Just days before Musk decided to quit California, state governor Gavin Newsom had signed the divisive bill AB-1955, better known as SAFETY (Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act) into law. Musk said that he had cautioned Newsom “about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children”.
He had also indicated his opposition to laws like AB-1955 last year, when he tweeted: “Consenting adults should do whatever makes them happy, provided it does not harm others, but a child is not capable of consent, which is why we have laws protecting minors.”
The same day he wrote: “I will be actively lobbying to criminalise making severe, irreversible changes to children below the age of consent.”
He also brought it up in an interview with Canadian psychologist and conservative commentator Jordan Peterson last month, saying, “My son is dead – killed by the woke mind virus”. Musk further described gender-reassignment surgery as “child mutilation and sterilisation”. He stressed that Xavier had been “killed” after he received gender-affirming treatments such as puberty-blockers.
CEO Linda Yaccarino informed employees of the decision in an internal email, revealing plans to relocate staff to existing offices in San Jose and Palo Alto.The move comes as no surprise given Musk’s well-documented disdain for the city and his previous criticisms of its political climate.
In July, Musk announced on X that he would be relocating the headquarters of his companies X and SpaceX from California to Texas, citing a new California law banning school transgender notification requirements as his reason for leaving. “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 wrote.
What is the California law that Musk is dead against
The California law bars schools from requiring staff to disclose a student’s gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation without the student’s permission. It overrides previous policies passed by local school boards that required management to tell parents if their children showed signs of being transgender.
The reason Musk is said to be so much against this law is that in 2020, amid the Covid pandemic, his 16-year-old son Xavier Alexander Musk came out as trans but didn’t inform him, according to Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson. Instead, Xavier texted Elon’s sister-in-law: “Hey, I’m transgender, and my name is now Jenna. Don’t tell my dad.”
Just days before Musk decided to quit California, state governor Gavin Newsom had signed the divisive bill AB-1955, better known as SAFETY (Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act) into law. Musk said that he had cautioned Newsom “about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children”.
He had also indicated his opposition to laws like AB-1955 last year, when he tweeted: “Consenting adults should do whatever makes them happy, provided it does not harm others, but a child is not capable of consent, which is why we have laws protecting minors.”
The same day he wrote: “I will be actively lobbying to criminalise making severe, irreversible changes to children below the age of consent.”
He also brought it up in an interview with Canadian psychologist and conservative commentator Jordan Peterson last month, saying, “My son is dead – killed by the woke mind virus”. Musk further described gender-reassignment surgery as “child mutilation and sterilisation”. He stressed that Xavier had been “killed” after he received gender-affirming treatments such as puberty-blockers.
