AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — Three transgender senior cadets earned their diplomas from the Air Force Academy on Thursday, but they did not commission as officers with their peers.
According to our news partners at The Gazette, Hunter Marquez is among the three, earning degrees in aeronautical engineering and applied math and meeting the Air Force’s physical standards for men.
The cadets can’t commission because of a U.S. Supreme Court order that allowed the President Donald Trump administration’s ban on transgender troops to be enforced ahead of a resolution of legal challenges on the ban.
A follow-up policy issued May 23 specifies that if cadets chose not to voluntarily leave the Air Force, they could be forced to repay their educational benefits. They must apply to voluntarily leave by June 6.
While all cadets attend the academy for free, the education is valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
However, Marquez said he heard from the headquarters of the Air Force on graduation day that he will not have to repay his tuition, if he is involuntarily separated.
It will allow him to continue fighting for his childhood dream of serving in the Air Force if the ban is reversed by the courts. He had been selected to serve as a combat systems officer. He said the news gave him hope.
“I really want to stay in for as long as possible, fight this out,” he said.
When asked for comment from The Gazette ahead of graduation, an academy spokesperson reiterated the Department of Defense policy.
The statement said that cadets who have a diagnosis of, a history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria may graduate from their respective programs but will not be commissioned into the Air Force or Space Force. Following graduation they will be placed on administrative absence until they are separated from the Air Force.
Marquez is among those suing the government as part of the Talbot v. the United States of America case that argues the Trump administration’s ban violates transgender service members' rights to equal protection under the law.
Trump said in an executive order that transgender troops cannot meet the high standards for “troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity and integrity” because of their “medical, surgical and mental health constraints.”
The order also stated it “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.”
A 2023 position paper against transgender troops put out by a group known as STARRS, or Stand Against Racism or Radicalism in the Services, equated gender-affirming care to other medical conditions that disqualify people for military service.
“Gender transition medical treatments adversely impact the military and (Department of Veterans Affairs) budgets due to the high cost of surgeries and lifelong hormone treatments, mental health counseling and medical care,” the paper said.
Marquez said in court documents he found the language of the order demeaning.
“It says that I am undisciplined, selfish, and dishonest. None of those are correct descriptions of my character or my abilities. I have achieved alongside my peers throughout my time at the Academy,” the court documents said.
An academy staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussion said that all three of the transgender cadets excelled in their classwork, in military training and physically, with all three passing both genders’ physical fitness tests.
“We want warfighters. We want people with grit, that are resilient, they have done all that,” he said.
The three were the first three cadets to be openly transgender at the academy and while there were some challenges, they were generally supported, he said.
“I think most people just want to see cadets that come in succeed,” he said.
An open letter published in March, aimed at encouraging transgender cadets and midshipmen at the service academies, has drawn nearly 970 signatures from alumni.
Air Force Academy graduate Ashley Anderson penned the letter that states “being transgender is in no way incompatible with any of our Academies’ cherished virtues and values.”
Anderson graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2006 and wanted to help counter the language in the executive order. She is hopeful that steps like the letter and one-on-one conversations can help build understanding about the transgender community, since few people know someone who is transgender and a service member.
“I am very hopeful in the medium- to long-term that there will be a remedy for the injustice that is happening,” she said.
The anonymous staff member noted that the roller coaster of the fight in the courts, including a pause on the ban and then the Supreme Court’s order allowing enforcement, has been tough on the cadets.
“They are just at the point of exhaustion,” he said.
Threatening cadets with possible repayment of their tuition if they don’t voluntarily leave is counter to how the academy has handled medical separations in the past, said retired Brig. Gen. Marty France, a former academy professor. In some previous cases, cadets have been medically retired and allowed to have veterans’ benefits.
“You shouldn’t be threatening them with financial ruin,” France said.
He also worries that if the transgender troop ban is allowed to stand, it could open the door to limiting the rights of gay and lesbian members in the military or women in combat roles, he said.
But in the long term he expects the ban will be reversed.
“The path of justice is a long one,” he said.
While service members can put in for waivers, they have to be able to serve as the gender they were assigned at birth and that is not available to those who have transitioned.
There may be some service members who can fulfill the requirements of the waiver but that means choosing between their military service and their identity, the anonymous academy staff member said.
“I think the military also loses in that situation because we may not be getting them at their best because they can’t be their true selves,” he said.
While Marquez’s peers celebrated this week, with parades and ceremonies that he took part in, he found the experience bittersweet.
But he does not regret his time at the academy and said he is thankful for all the people that he’s met. He said it’s tough to see his dream potentially shattered.
“There’s still a lot of anger and frustration and sadness, just because I have worked so hard to be a second lieutenant in the Air Force and at the very end that was taken from me,” he said.
Marquez medically transitioned while at the academy during 2022 and 2023.
“I honestly feel like my life opened up and I could finally be happy,” he said.
He spent a large portion of last summer in the gym to get stronger ahead of his physical fitness tests. It was a great feeling when he met the male standards, he said.
“I got a better score than I ever expected I could get,” he said.
After Trump’s reelection, Marquez said he feared a transgender troop ban, but he was in shock after it happened and for a few weeks nothing changed.
Then he needed to go down three floors from his dorm room to the nearest single-use restroom in Sijan Hall, and trek from Sijan Hall to Vandenberg Hall across the terrazzo to the a single-use shower to adhere to the new gender rules, he said in court filings.
He also crammed the last semester of classes into an accelerated schedule. While his peers had until May 16 to complete their coursework, he finished by March 25. The faster timetable ensured he would have met the requirements to graduate, even if he was forced to separate under the ban.
During the intense weeks of study, his friends would come into his room and without saying anything get out their homework and study alongside him, he said.
“I made it through because of them,” he said.
In the coming weeks, he expects to be placed on administrative absence, so he will still receive medical benefits and cadet pay.
While he still hopes to commission, Marquez plans to apply to the University of Colorado Boulder to pursue a graduate degree in its aerospace engineering program.
“I am staying realistic, while also trying to hope for the best,” he said.
The Gazette's Mary Shinn contributed to this web story.
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