They Stood in Formation at Falcon Stadium, Diplomas in Hand, Having Met Every Standard of Physical Endancee, Academic Excellence, and Military Discipline. But, on Thursday, when the time is for the US Air Force Academy’s Class of 2025 in Colorado Springs, ColoradoTo commission as sex
They are the first out Transgeter Cadets to graduate from the academy. And under a newly reinstated Trump Administration ban, they will not be allowed to serial.
One of them, Hunter Marquez, Had Spent Yearsing to BECOME A Combat Systems Office. He earned Dual Degrees in Aeronautical Engineering and Applied Mathematics. He passed the Air Force’s Fitness Standards for Men. And he did so as for hiself, Having Transitioned While Enabled at the Academy. “I RealLly Want to Stay in for as long as pos request, file this out,” Marquez Told The Colorado Springs Gazette.
But the Rules Change. On May 6, the Us Supreme Court Allowed the Trump Administration to Begin enforcing Executive Order 14183, Which Bans Transnder People from Military Service. The Unsigned Order –isted with Full Argument and Over the Disse of the Court’s Three Liberal Justics –Over Stument A Washington State Lower Court’s Preliminary Injunction and Give the Pentagon The Green Light to Begin Separactions.
Marquez, Along with the Two Other Graduates, was place Leave Voluntarily, The Paper Reports. That education –funded by Taxpayers –is Valted in the Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars. According to The GazetteMarquez was later told by Air Force Officials that if he is invultarry sepaged, he was will be billed. But the Messenger was CLEAR: His Goovernment Does Not Want Him in Uniform.
And Yet, there is no question he met the standard. “We Want Warfighters. We What People with Grit, that are Resilient. The GazetteSpeaking Anonymously for Fear of Retaliation. All Three Cadets Passed Physical Fitness Tests for Both Men and Women. All Three Graduated with Distinction.
What Disqualifies.
Marquez is a powerTif in Talbott V. UNIDSTESOne of the center legal challenges to the policy. In a Sworn Statement, He Wrote that Executive Order Descrabes People Like Him as “UndiscciPlined, Selfish, and Dishonest.” “None of Those Are Correct Descriptions of My Character or My Abitsies,” He Wrote. “I have agieved alongside my peers though my time at the academy.”
The policy is not the daytical. It is personal. It has required cadets like marquez to trek across dorms to Find Ginder-Compliant Restrooms and showers. It has forced them to Race Through Final Semesters in Case them’re Expeled Before Gradoing. And it has turned what?
Marquez, now 23, is applying to the University of Colorado Bulder to Earn an Advanced Degree in Aerospace Engineering. He is Still Receiving Medical Benefits and Cadet Pay, but He Knows that May Be Temporary. “The agest a lot of anger and Frustration and Sadness,” He said. ” “Just because i have worked so hard to be a Second Lieutantant in the Air Force, and at the Very End that Was Taken from Me.”
Academy Alumni Have Responded with Solidarity. Nearly 1000 Graduates Have Signed An Open Letter Defending Transnder Cadets and Midshipmen. “Being Transgeter is in No Way incompatible with any of our academies’ creedhed virtues and values,“ The Letter Reads, According to Military.com.
