Sharing Bathrooms in Italy

Open Letter to North Carolina and Tennessee Lawmakers:

I thought you might like to know that Italians have been sharing public bathroom facilities for almost a hundred years.

This is the "necessities room" at the British Institute of Florence. The women's toilet and the men's toilet are steps away from each other in the same  bathroom.

Space is limited in medieval buildings, so a "necessities room" will contain a stall with a locking door for women and another stall with a locking door for men. These rooms also contain sink facilities and soap and towel dispensers which are shared equally.

This area is used by both men and women in their shared bathroom at the British Institute of Florence.

There are no genital inspectors to determine who may pass through which door, so people freely choose to go into whichever toilet stall they prefer.

Not a single case of depravity has ever been reported.

Another example of a shared bathroom in Fiesole, a small town near Florence. You can clearly see the men's toilet door, and, in the mirror reflection are the women's toilet doors (opposite the men's-- the wise Italians in this town give the women two stalls) and the shared sink facilities in between.