U.S. Air Force cadet who graduated with flying colours isn't allowed to serve their country

As It Happens6:28This U.S. Air Force cadet who graduated with flying colours isn't allowed to serve their country

Serving in the U.S. military felt like a calling for Hunter Marquez.

The 22-year-old cadet has spent the last four years training at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., culminating in an emotional graduation ceremony last week, surrounded by friends and families.

With degrees in aeronautical engineering and applied mathematics, Marquez expected to be commissioned as a second lieutenant and as a combat systems officer. 

Instead, they've been barred from service and placed on administrative leave under the U.S. President Donald Trump's transgender military ban, along with two of their fellow graduates.

"I grew up loving this country … so I thought this was the best thing that I could do with my life, was giving back," Marquez told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "Being transgender does not define my ability to serve."

Regardless, being transgender does define their eligibility to serve, according to the U.S. Air Force. 

"Service members and applicants for military service who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the requirements of military service and are no longer eligible," an Air Force spokesperson told CBC in an email.

Gender dysphoria is a diagnostic term sometimes used to describe the distress someone feels when their gender identity is at odds with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Support from teachers, classmates and alumni 

Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an executive order barring transgender people from serving in the military.

Several legal challenges to the policy are making their way through the courts, including a lawsuit in which Marquez is a plaintiff. But, in May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration can enforce its ban while those cases proceed.

Days later, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth — a former Fox News host who has referred to transgender women as "dudes in dresses" — issued a deadline: Transgender service members have until June 6 to identify themselves and begin the process of "voluntary separation" from the military. 

Anyone who doesn't comply, he said, will be found and kicked out.

That court ruling and subsequent deadline upended Marquez's future.

"I used to have a guaranteed job. You know, I was riding on that for four years. Now I don't," Marquez said. "Now I have to move back home and figure out what my next step will be."

Marquez says their teachers and classmates have been supportive. What's more, more than 1,000 U.S. military academy graduates have signed an open letter in support of trans and non-binary cadets.

"We firmly believe that the simple fact of being transgender is in no way incompatible with any of our Academies' cherished virtues and values," it reads. "Rather, we understand that living authentically as a trans person, especially at our Academies, is often a profound expression of them."

Scrolling through the long list of signatures brought tears or Marquez's eyes.

"Some of those names I did recognize. I had been best friends with them, or I had played sports with them. They were in my squadron, or I just knew them in the class," they said. "So it really meant a lot."

Trump says trans troops not 'fit for duty'

Trump's order states that transgender officers are not "mentally and physically fit for duty." Marquez takes issue with that assertion.

"I met all the standards when I was serving under a female gender marker. And then when I transitioned to the male gender marker, I still met all of the standards," Marquez said.

"There wasn't anything I was lacking on. There wasn't anything I fell short of. I got academic distinction from the Academy. So, on paper, you know, there's nothing that says that being transgender makes me less than."

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For now, Marquez is still a cadet with full benefits. They and their fellow trans graduates have been placed on administrative leave. That could change with Hegseth's June 6 deadline rapidly approaching.

A  memo from military brass stated that cadets who don't leave the military voluntarily before the deadline "may" have to pay back the cost of their education, which, in Maquez's case, adds up to roughly $400,000 US.

The U.S. Air Force told CBC that graduates who choose voluntary separation "will not be subject to monetary repayment."

Marquez, however, doesn't intend to leave willingly. They said they have been assured they won't have to pay back their tuition, either way. The Air Force has not confirmed this to CBC.  

"I believe that what is happening is unfair and I want to stay in the Air Force for as long as possible," Marquez said. "The Air force is going to have to be the one to kick me out."

When and if that happens, Marquez is planning to go back to school to get a graduate degree. 

They are also a plaintiff in Talbott v. United States, one of several legal challenges against the transgender military ban. 

"I am putting my trust in the American justice system and hoping for the best, but I also want to stay realistic," Marquez said. "We're going to keep fighting until the end."