CAT/C/54/2 examinations to “prove” their homosexuality. The Subcommittee has received reports of such medically worthless examinations, which have also been condemned by the Committee against Torture, the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The latter has held that the practice contravenes the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. 68. In particular, the Subcommittee notes with concern the situation of complete abandonment of transgender women and men in detention. The absence of appropriate means of identification, registration and detention leads in some cases to transgender women being placed in male-only prisons, where they are exposed to a high risk of rape, often with the complicity of prison personnel. During its visits, the Subcommittee has learned that transgender persons deprived of their liberty are often forced to enact sex scenes in front of fellow inmates, and that such practices are often sponsored by guards who charge for the viewing. The Subcommittee has learned of deaths of transgender women in custody, including occurrences of death after anal penetration with a bat. 69. As stated by the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, “sanctioned punishment by States reinforces existing prejudices, and legitimizes community violence and police brutality directed at affected individuals” (A/HRC/14/20, para. 20). Special procedures mandate holders have emphasized the link between criminalization and homophobic hate crimes, police abuse, torture and family and community violence, as well as the constraints that criminalization places on the work of human rights defenders aimed at protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons. 70. The Subcommittee considers that the repeal of laws criminalizing same-sex sexual relations between consenting adults and other laws used to penalize individuals on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity is a mandatory requirement for the prevention of torture against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons. 71. Ill-treatment also occurs on the part of health professionals and in health care settings, and it includes denial of gender-appropriate medical treatment, verbal abuse and public humiliation, psychiatric evaluations, sterilization, and hormone therapy and genitalnormalizing surgeries under the guise of so called “reparative therapies”. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has expressed concern about lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women as “victims of abuses and mistreatment by health service providers” (A/HRC/19/41, para. 56); the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture has expressed similar concerns. 72. The Subcommittee encourages States parties to develop and implement public health policies aimed at providing gender-appropriate care, an obligation that extends, particularly, to the satisfaction of the highly particular needs of transgender women and men and of intersex persons. V. Substantive issues: pretrial detention and the prevention of torture and other ill-treatment A. Definitions 73. The Subcommittee recognizes that there is a range of legal categorizations and definitions of “pretrial detention” within constitutional and legislative provisions of States parties. The various legal definitions encompass a range of different stages of deprivation of liberty for untried detainees within criminal justice systems. Furthermore, the 14