TLDR:

• If you as an acti­ve or for­mer sex worker* wish to join as a par­ti­ci­pant in the Con­gress (15. + 16.08.2019) yours­elf – get your ticket here.
• If you as a sexworker/ally/ orga­ni­sa­ti­on want to con­tri­bu­te to the pro­gram at the Sex Work Fair (17.08.2019) – drop us a line at
• If you know or some­bo­dy you know is able and might like to sup­port the events – find more infor­ma­ti­on on spon­so­ring here.
• Plea­se spread the word (the Sex Work Fair is open to the public) and share the Who­re Con­gress and World of Who­re­craft Fair in your groups, forums, or social media pro­files. THANK YOU! 🙂

A safe space for exchan­ging expe­ri­en­ces and lear­ning from each other In gene­ral socie­ty and the media, sex work and tho­se asso­cia­ted with the indus­try often have a “dir­ty”, “per­ver­ted” or even dan­ge­rous repu­ta­ti­on. A lot of sex workers* the­r­e­fo­re strugg­le with pre­ju­di­ces and stig­ma and many feel they have to con­ce­al their choice of work from fri­ends or fami­ly. From the 15^th to 17^th of August the BesD e.V. – the sex­wor­ker-led Asso­cia­ti­on for Sexu­al and Ero­tik Ser­vices based in Ger­ma­ny – invi­tes col­le­gues* of all working fields, gen­ders and nati­ons to the Ger­man capi­tal to cele­bra­te the annu­al Who­re Con­gress and the brand-new Sex Work Fair tog­e­ther. The first two days are strict­ly sex worker only – only tho­se who are or were acti­ve in ero­tic or sexu­al ser­vices are wel­co­me to par­ti­ci­pa­te in the Con­gress. With the work­shops on the 15^th and a bar­camp on the 16^th we stri­ve to offer ple­nty of space for spon­ta­neous con­tent, for get­ting to know each other and for strengh­tening our per­so­nal and pro­fes­sio­nal net­works. A uni­que oppor­tu­ni­ty for net­wor­king among sex workers* Our work­shop lea­ders* are all sex workers* them­sel­ves and will share tricks, tips and expe­ri­en­ces of all kinds. Some of the work­shops will be in Ger­man, some in Eng­lish, some bilin­gu­al – as last year, many inter­na­tio­nal col­le­agues are expec­ted to join in at the Con­gress. Whe­ther it is “Pro­fes­sio­nal BDSM for beg­in­ners” by Lon­don domi­na­trix Cass Trai­tor, “Cyber-Secu­ri­ty for Sex Workers” by acti­vist Lara, “Fight­ing Burn-Out through Self Love” by body-worker Dion de Ros­si or “Inti­ma­te Mas­sa­ge“ by tan­tra pro­fes­sio­nal Flo­ra – all our work­shop topics expli­cit­ly address peo­p­le working in sex work and their spe­ci­fic needs. The con­gress is also an oppor­tu­ni­ty to dis­cuss and edu­ca­te yours­elf about com­plex topics: For exam­p­le the­re will be a spe­cial workspace for dis­cus­sing the needs of trans­gen­der/­trans­se­xu­al/­non-bina­ry/­gen­der­que­er peo­p­le in sex work and TAMPEP- coör­di­na­tor Ana­sta­cia Ryan will lead a dis­cus­sion on the impact of anti-traf­fi­cking mea­su­res on migrant sex workers. Not­hing About Us Wit­hout Us The World of Who­re­craft – Sex Work Fair on the 17^th of August is open to the public. Inte­res­ted visi­tors have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to inform them­sel­ves bey­ond media reports – about the indus­try, the Who­res’ Rights Move­ment and the needs and issues of sex workers*. Sex workers* and their sup­port­ers will be intro­du­cing the rele­vant issues in and dif­fe­rent aspects of their work at infor­ma­ti­on stands, work­shops, rea­dings and key­note lec­tures. In addi­ti­on to the BesD, other sex work asso­cia­ti­ons, coun­seling cen­ters and net­works will be informing about the poli­ti­cal and social chal­lenges sex workers are facing in Ger­ma­ny and inter­na­tio­nal­ly. Soli­da­ri­ty: Con­nec­ting, uniting, taking action tog­e­ther The Sex Work Fair will be joi­n­ed by col­le­gues* and allies from all over the world – for exam­p­le the sex­wor­ker move­ment SWARM from Lon­don, the Black Sex Worker Coll­ec­ti­ve from New York, Wild Thing from Ams­ter­dam and the euro­pe-wide ICRSE net­work. Addi­tio­nal­ly you can look for­ward to various per­for­man­ces, spaces devo­ted to art, film, aca­de­mi­cal rese­arch and much more. Indus­try-rele­vant sup­pli­ers, such as the que­er sex shop Other Natu­re, will also be found at the fair. Sin­ce some sex workers* unfort­u­na­te­ly can­not afford tra­vel, ticket cos­ts or a loss of ear­nings, we are still loo­king for event spon­sors* who would like to enable mar­gi­na­li­sed col­le­agues* to par­ti­ci­pa­te in the con­gress and the Sex Work Fair. Click here for more infor­ma­ti­on on spon­so­ring pos­si­bi­li­ties. The final pro­gram­me will be published on the web­site www.worldofwhorecraft.de.