Unanimously, the First Section of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) decided on Wednesday (12) that The Armed Forces cannot remove soldiers from their duties just because they are transgender or undergoing gender transition. 
The decision standardizes the STJ’s understanding on the matter and binds all lower courts, which are obliged to follow the understanding, in any process, from now on.
“The condition of a transgender person or the gender transition process does not, in itself, constitute incapacity or illness for the purposes of military service”, stated the rapporteur on the topic, Minister Teodoro da Silva Santos.
The conduct of any compulsory reform or exclusion process based on gender change was also prohibited.
The decision also determined that all records and internal communications must be updated to use the social name of trans soldiers.
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The STJ accepted the arguments of the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU), which represented military personnel from Rio de Janeiro who were forced to take medical leave due to their transsexuality. One of them was compulsorily retired, according to the process.
The group had already achieved victory in the second instance of the Federal Court, but the Union appealed to the STJ, on behalf of the Armed Forces, with the argument that entry into the military ranks provides for clear and permanent gender conditions.
The STJ ministers dismissed the argument, stating that, by definitive decision, admission to a vacancy reserved for the opposite sex cannot serve as a justification for absences of any kind.
