Transgender Air Force cadet’s dream of joining the military put on hold amid Trump’s ban

Hunter Marquez had been dreaming about joining the U.S. Air Force since they were in middle school, so after graduating from high school, they began their four years of training at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.

“I grew up with a family that just loved this country,” Marquez told ABC News Live Prime in an interview that aired on Thursday. “And I found my calling with the military.”

The 22-year-old cadet, who earned dual degrees in aeronautical engineering and applied mathematics, had expected to be commissioned into the Air Force as a second lieutenant after they graduated in May, but after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of enforcing President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender troops from the military, Marquez’s dream was put on hold.

“At the end [we] all got to throw our hats in the air, and everyone got to put on their second lieutenant shoulder boards, and I’d keep my cadet ones on, because I would not be a second lieutenant,” Marquez said, recounting the ceremony on May 29, where about 900 cadets graduated from the Academy. “So it was very disheartening, because I knew all of my friends, all of the people I’d known these past four years have a guaranteed job, and now I’m just here with no idea what I’m gonna do next.”

As Marquez worked to complete their final semester at the Academy, Trump signed on Jan. 27 an executive order directing the Defense Department to revise the policy allowing transgender troops to openly serve in the military.

“Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” the order said.

The order further argued that receiving gender-affirming medical care is one of the conditions that is physically and mentally “incompatible with active duty.”

Professor Nathaniel Frank, a cultural historian and researcher at Cornell University who studies the history of LGBTQ+ people in the military, told ABC News that decades of research dispute the administration’s arguments that transgender individuals are not fit to serve.

“There’s never been any evidence found that gay or transgender service members present any problems to unit cohesion or readiness, and that the evidence finds the opposite, that the prohibitions against trans people are what harm readiness and cohesion because they undermine trust,” Frank said.

Frank also added that the military already has a system of checks and balances to ensure that all individuals, including transgender service members, are physically and mentally fit to serve.

“The military screens their personnel at all levels, upon session or commission, recruitment, and then for retention purposes, deployment to combat zones,” Frank said.

Marquez, who began transitioning during their freshman year at the Academy, said that they passed and met all the requirements for males at the Academy, including a more demanding male physical fitness test.

“I remember talking to my commander about it because I was nervous,” Marquez said, recalling the day they took the test. “I got a better score than I expected, and I remember going to his office and I was like, sir, you wouldn’t guess what happened. This is my score, and he celebrated with me.”

Following Trump’s executive order, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a memo in February saying that the military would begin discharging transgender service members — a move that is being challenged by three ongoing federal lawsuits.

“I broke down crying because I couldn’t believe that I had made it up to this point just to lose it,” Marquez said, recalling their reaction to the memo.

The Pentagon’s new ban went into effect in early May, shortly after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could enforce the ban on transgender people in the military while legal challenges proceed in lower courts.

Marquez signed their name on one of the lawsuits challenging the ban, becoming a plaintiff in Talbott vs. Trump.

“I just saw that as my only option because I and thousands of others deserve the right to serve in the military,” Marquez said. “There’s nothing that says we can’t perform our duties, that we’re less than just because of our gender identity.”

The Pentagon estimates more than 4,200 active guard and reserve service members are diagnosed by military doctors with “gender dysphoria,” which is the military’s metric for tracking the number of transgender troops. But advocacy groups have estimated that the number of transgender service members in those units is much higher — at around 15,000 out of the 2.1 million.

After graduating, Marquez said that they decided to embark on a backpacking trip through Europe — one that has turned into a soul-searching experience.

Marquez, who spoke with ABC News during the London leg of their trip, reflected on their journey to transition and said that despite the challenges ahead, they would not change their decision.

“At the end of the day, people that I’ve met here, the officers and the faculty, they’ve changed my life for the better,” Marquez said.

Asked where their dream stands after the Supreme Court’s decision, Marquez said that they still want to serve.

“If a decision came down today that, you know, I could join the Air Force, I would take that in a heartbeat,” they said. “I’d drop everything here in Europe and go. In the end, the dream is always to be in the military.”

ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.