User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Georgia (US state)

Public toilets in Georgia are found at a rate of around three per 100,000 people. They have been used to fight disease. They have also been part of racial segregation. Transgender access to public toilets based on their gender identity has also been an issue.

Public toilets
washroom is one of the most commonly used words for public toilet in the United States. Euphemisms are often used to avoid discussing the purpose of toilets. Words used include toilet, restroom, bathroom, lavatory and john.

A 2021 study found there were 3 public toilets per 100,000 people.

History
The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission was founded in 1909 to combat hookworm disease in the South. A survey was done of 11 southern states, which confirmed the presence of hookworm in 700 countries. A chief cause of spread of hookworm disease as open defecation in farmland. The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission program helped install public toilets and promote their use as part of their efforts to reduce hookworm disease. This was coupled with offering free exams and health treatment for hookworm disease.

Women in the 1910s in Atlanta argued for the definition of women's comfort stations and rest rooms to be more narrowly defined.

Allentown, Atlanta, Detroit, Jackson, Lansing, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and San Francisco all began construction of public toilets in response to the passage of the 18th amendment and the resulting closure of public toilets in saloons.

Because Prohibition saw an increase in the construction of public toilets to address the new found demand, many municipalities located outside the South built sex-segregated public toilets that were essentially the same construction inside, with the same number of stalls and layout for each. In the South, public toilet facilities tended to have four toilet sections that reinforced racial segregation, one for white women, one for white men, one for colored men and one for colored women.

In 1921, the city of Atlanta built a public toilet facility, with the first floor being for white men, the second floor for white women and the basement for black people.

Racially segregated public toilets were still very common in the 1960s. There was a push back against building public toilets in Jim Crow states during the period between 1865 and 1960, because it meant that local governments were not just required to build two toilets, one for men and one for women, but four toilets, one each for men and women who were white and who were colored.

Despite an increase in the number of rough sleepers in the as a result of the financial crisis, there were no new public toilets built in Atlanta between 2010 and 2018.

After North Carolina banned people from using public toilets that matched with their gender identity and required people use the public toilet that matched with their sex in 2016, the mayor of Atlanta banned travel paid by the city to the state.