Elon Musk Leaves California (Again) Due to State’s Landmark Transgender Bill

The decision by Elon Musk , owner of SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter) and CEO of Tesla, to move thousands of jobs out of California this week due to his displeasure with legislation signed by Governor Newsom got more attention than the bill itself.

LGBTQ activists cheered the passage of AB 1955: Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY Act) , which was intended to stop schools from what has been described as the “forced outing” of transgender students to their parents.

Nearly half of the transgender and nonbinary young people contacted for a recent survey by the Trevor Project had seriously considered attempting suicide. Ninety percent of them reported that their well-being has been negatively impacted by recent politics.

The first in the nation law was introduced by San Diego Assembly member Christopher M. Ward after a handful of school districts around the state, including the Orange Unified School District, adopted or considered policies directing schools to notify parents if a child asked for their name or pronouns to be changed.

“The rhetoric they [supporters of parental notification] used on the dais to describe LGBTQ people as abominations and mentally ill was really abhorrent,” says Jacob Fraker, Legislative Consultant for the LGBTQ Caucus which helped to pass AB1955. “It was clear from our perspective this was not about parents’ rights but a direct attack against the LGBTQ community and we decided we needed to weigh in.”

The trend started 35 miles east of Los Angeles at the Chino Valley Unified School District according to Fraker. “Pretty much all of these policies have been written by Erin Friday,” he says. “She is the mother of who she proudly proclaims a formerly trans child. She pulled them out of school and put them in some intense pseudo conversion therapy. She’s a lawyer and she wrote this policy.”

Fraker reports that colleagues from Vermont and New York have reached out for resources and hope to pass similar legislation.

“The school had changed her name and pronouns behind my back,” Friday told former Fox News host Megyn Kelly on her podcast . “It is a lonely, difficult journey because everyone is against the parent. From the teachers to the doctors to even sometimes your own family members and your friends.”

Musk, who also has a transgender child, called the new law “the final straw.” He has already moved some of his business to Texas.

The Chino Valley Unified School District filed a lawsuit the day after the bill was signed alleging that AB 1955 violates the constitutional rights of parents to due process and freedom of religion. "This is a deeply unserious lawsuit, seemingly designed to stoke the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter rather than surface legitimate legal claims," Izzy Gardon of the governor’s office said in a statement. "We're confident the state will swiftly prevail in this case."