Who we are & what we do
Since January 2019, Hydra has had a second location: Hydra Café.
This is a space for all people who have experience with sex work, with or without registration according to the new law (ProstSchG). This includes people who work in bars, brothels, on the streets, flats, sex cinemas, massage parlours, in front of webcams, as escorts, dancers or porn performers.
Everything we offer is voluntary, free and anonymous.
Most of the activities at HydraCafé are organised by sex workers for sex workers. We work with a strong peer-to-peer concept in order to put the focus on people who are themselves members of various sex work communities. They are the experts who know exactly what is needed.
Occasionally, other non-sex workers will also be on site to offer additional services such as social counselling or free HIV/STI testing if needed. We decided to adopt this approach because our visitors often benefit from this form of easy access. If there is a need for counselling and/or testing, there are possibilities to retreat in order to keep the general space primarily for sex workers.
Unfortunately, the Hydra Café is currently not barrier-free. There are 6 steps to both the main entrance and the toilets.
Who is welcome here at Hydra Café?
Hydra Café is a space for all people, who have experience as a sex worker, with or without registration under the new law (ProstSchG). By that we mean all people who have worked in bars, brothels, incall spaces like apartments, adult movie theaters, massage salons, webcamming, as an escort, as a dancer, porn performer or working on the streets.
Please keep in mind that all personal information or contact details you may learn about someone at Hydra Café must remain confidential. Meeting someone here does not automatically give you permission to approach them outside of Hydra Café and out them as a sex worker. Not all people are open and out to the same degree as other sex workers and they might want to keep their status as a worker secret. We would like to respect each person’s individual decision.
The sex work community includes many different people. It is quite likely you will not share the same exact experiences as other people you meet at Hydra Café. This can be a beautiful enrichment in some cases, in other cases it can also lead to conflict and at worst, discrimination. Therefore, we would ask you to pay attention to your language and reflect on your behavior here. No one should feel excluded or discriminated against on the basis of their looks, age, gender, ethnicity, body, religion, sexual orientation, language skills, how much money a person earns, how they work, whether they use drugs or not, or whether they work in a brothel, on the streets or inside. We know these things can sometimes be overwhelming, which is why are here to offer support in all matters big or small. We want to intervene should disrespectful, hurtful or boundary-crossing behavior occur. If you have a bad feeling about a certain situation and you have the energy to talk about it, please approach us! Together we would like to find ways to make Hydra Café a safer space.
Sadly, Hydra Café is still not yet accessible. There are six stairs leading to the main entrance and also to the toilets.
What we stand for
Hydra’s mission is to promote and increase the respect, safety and autonomy of all people who do sex-based work. Sex workers face stigma every day. Prejudices in society and media images depicting sex workers are mostly negative and violent. This daily exposure to stigma is exhausting and there are very little spaces for workers in the sex industry to come together, talk about these things and decompress. This is why we would like to facilitate a space in which sex workers can feel unencumbered by societal pressure, prejudice and discrimination and through this space nd better access to connect, educate and network.
Moreover, we work with a strong peer-to-peer approach. We want to center people who belong to different communities within the sex work industry. They are the experts who know what’s best for them, what they need and what might still be missing. In close collaboration, we develop different of event and group formats. In that way, we hope we can uplift the voices of people who are often underrepresented in public discourse due to structural discrimination.
We believe there is no such thing as “the” sex work community, but that there are many different communities with many or fewer privileges. In addition to societal prejudices, many sex workers must deal with further challenges, e.g. for being trans/inter or non-binary, migrants, people of color, little or no German language knowledge, no access to social services or not being registered under the Prostitutes Protection Act (ProstSchutzG). Each community has different needs and works a different way. Within our team, our hosts, our workshop facilitators and the content that we offer, we always take into account gender, migration, race, status, class, languages, life and sex work experiences in our work.
Calendar
We do our best to host events in different languages. If you are missing a certain language, you would like a translation or if you would like to get involved, please let us know.