'If the police raided, they danced together,' says Gieseking. Harlem in particular was a destination for wild nightlife. 'Queer districts blossomed in black areas with less policing,' says Cookie Woolner, a historian who has written about African American queer women in the early 20th century. While white women could go to a bar in Harlem and be relatively safe from exposure, black women risked running into their neighbors. For that reason, they socialized in more private settings-mainly apartment parties. Prohibition banned alcohol from 1920 to 1933. When alcohol was illegal and bars and speakeasies went underground, people got off on breaking the rules. In the general climate of lawlessness, gay folks had an easier time escaping notice. Lesbian bars, like recreation and leisure more generally, lagged in the 1930s. During the Great Depression, which outlasted Prohibition until the start of World War II, alcohol was more tightly regulated, and many were too broke to party and buy booze.