Wiener calls Musk’s reason for moving X from SF ‘vile,’ ‘despicable’

Elon Musk’s stated reason for moving X and SpaceX out of California is “outrageous” and “vile,” state Sen. Scott Wiener said.

Musk announced Tuesday his intention to move the two companies to Texas in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom the day before signing Assembly Bill 1955 . That law bars public schools from telling parents about their children’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression without the kids’ consent.

The bill is intended to protect transgender and queer kids, Wiener said Wednesday in an interview with The Examiner. While many parents are supportive of such kids, plenty still are not, the San Francisco Democrat said. And children of unsupportive parents are at risk of violence or being kicked out of their homes if they’re outed.

“He as a person, to try to tell California, ‘If you protect the safety of trans children I’m moving my companies away’ — that is vile,” Wiener said. “It’s just despicable.”

Representatives for San Francisco-based X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The state legislature passed the law after several school districts put in place policies that required school personnel to notify parents if their kids asked to be referred to by a different name or pronouns. Although Musk said there were other reasons he was moving X and SpaceX, including homelessness and crime, AB 1955 was “the final straw,” he said on X.

“I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children,” Musk said in a separate post on X.

To be sure, Wiener said he was disappointed to hear that Musk plans to move X’s headquarters. But it wasn’t much of a surprise, given that the tech billionaire had previously threatened to do so , he said.

Musk’s stated rationale also wasn’t a big shock, Wiener suggested. The tech billionaire has fully embraced former President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, he said. And Musk is reportedly estranged from his trans child, he noted.

What’s more, under Musk’s leadership, X has become a “cesspool” of hatred toward LGBTQ+ people, Wiener said.

“I experience that on a regular basis,” he said. “So do a lot of other queer people.”

Wiener questioned the significance of Musk moving X and Space’s headquarters. X in particular is a shell of itself, he noted. Musk has reportedly cut more than 80% of its full-time staff since he bought the former Twitter in late 2022 .

Meanwhile, Musk made a big splash in 2021 when he announced plans to move Tesla from Palo Alto to Austin, Wiener said. But much of Tesla’s operations stayed in the area and the company even designated Palo Alto as its engineering headquarters, he noted. The same might end up being the case with SpaceX, he said.

Moving Tesla’s headquarters “made a lot of headlines, but Tesla still has a huge presence in California. So we’ll see what he does,” Wiener said.

In the meantime, it’s not up to Musk to decide whether LGBTQ+ people have civil-rights protections, he said.

“He doesn’t get to dictate that to the state of California,” Wiener said. “And it’s outrageous that he’s saying that he’s moving because of the enactment of that law.”

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