Kirsty Johnston
@kirsty_johnston
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Voyager Reporter of the Year 2022. Most recently reporting on the climate crisis for @radionz.
Joined May 2009
At the end of 2021, I got an email from a woman titled “investigating the possible murder of my mother”. The author was Sarah, who - it turned out - was born in a psychiatric hospital to a woman named Nellie. That’s where our podcast begins. Out today! .
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I spent a year writing about garages in South (and west and parts of east) Auckland and I met plenty of criminals during my reporting. ie the real estate agents and landlords illegally marketing uninhabitable damp spaces as bedrooms for vulnerable families.
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People on over $180k worried about a tax hike should just plant vege gardens.
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Every time I see the National Party talking about state housing, I can't help it, I have to dig out the graph I spent six months making in 2019
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I spent a months watching wellness "mumfluencers" peddle increasingly rabid anti-vaccine messages online. Finally decided to write about it last week as they reached a full-throated crescendo in support for the Parliamentary occupation. Enjoy.
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The level of conspiracy around how media works is actually mind blowing. People think we “held” the Uffindell story for poll day. Like, I’m not a political reporter I have no idea when poll day is! I’ve never worked in the gallery I have barely any idea what happens there lol.
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Being a journalist is basically just knowing heaps of secrets but only being able to tell the ones about people who can't afford lawyers.
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My uncle rang me today which is veeeery odd. Chatted a bit and eventually I’m like “why are you calling what’s happened” and it turned out he’d made a “vulnerable” list of family (incl. me cos I live alone) and was making his way through it to check on everyone 😭❤️.
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Omg Stuff are giving ALL employees $100 on Friday with the intention we spend it at local businesses! Amazing and also DRAMA what to buy!? Thinking a huge bunch of flowers from my local florist cos I know they had such a tough time in lockdown 🤔💐 #payitforward.
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Hello I’m back at work, my news from the holidays is that I caught a crayfish, my concussion seems better and . I’m getting married!!!!
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Look my story isn’t out til tomorrow but I just thought I’d let you all know that NZ’s pre-eminent expert on the 1918 flu epidemic, Geoffrey Rice, (whose work forms th basis for much of our current pandemic plan) told me today we are doing a really good job.
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Watching anti-vax mums with huge followings on Instagram cheering on other mums for refusing to wear masks at the supermarket and yup, that’s it, my experiment in seeking to understand them is over because I JUST CANT WITH THESE PEOPLE.
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ACT leader David Seymour said women being unavailable for extra, after-hours work was the main factor driving the gender pay gap. I fact checked him. He was wrong.
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I have been working with this woman for six months to tell her story. She was abused first by her husband and then by the justice system, taking five years to quash her conviction for perjury. In the meantime, she lost everything. Please read.
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Women! Just get off Twitter if it's that bad! In fact, just withdraw from public life! Don't have opinions, maybe don't even have a job. Why not hand over your credit card, stop reading books, get in the kitchen, damn, maybe just put on a red cloak already and call it a day.
Corin Dann: Are you subject to abuse?. Christopher Luxon: I know I am, I’m sure I am but the reality is I handle it and I don’t live my life on Twitter. Dann: Is it worse for women . Luxon: I’m not sure about that. there is just deep polarisation of political views.
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This morning my uncle posted in the family group chat wishing my twin brother a happy birthday but not me and I can’t stop laughing about it.
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I have some news! After 15 years in the newspaper industry I have accepted a job at @radionz, in the frankly intimidating In Depth team. Still writing, but some audio and video too, and still working at home so many dog pics to come.
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I went from being shocked and sad about Kiri Allan’s cervical cancer diagnosis to a white hot fury in about three seconds and haven’t been about to let it go all day. HOW ABOUT WE PROPERLY FUND AND RESEARCH AND PRIORITISE WOMEN’S HEALTH.
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The National Party’s newest MP, Sam Uffindell, was asked to leave his exclusive boarding school after viciously beating a younger student late at night. He apologised 22 years later, just before becoming a National candidate.
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Idea: replace businessman with the term "boyboss".
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Imagine being the person who was like, you know where we could save money? Disabled children’s swimming lessons.
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A little NZ story. A couple of weeks ago my brother noticed a hopeless baby morepork in the bush while he was hunting
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“The silence is deafening”. I’ve spent 4 years writing about education and poverty and feeling like I was shouting in to a void. This piece attempts to address why NZ just doesn’t want to know about it, and why we really, really should
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Im finding it very difficult to know if this is fair or not given we don’t even know what the terms of reference were; who was interviewed; who wasn’t; and what the report found happened (as opposed to what didn’t happen)
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I feel like the fact we still have to call it “child poverty” and not what it is (ie. family poverty and more often than not, solo parent poverty) tells you exactly what you need to know about NZ’s punitive attitude towards poor people.
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Here I am, officially leaving the RNZ building to go and become a mum! See you all in a year ✌️
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The rumours are true! I’m (re)defecting! So much love for @nzherald but so excited to join @nzstuff at this very exciting time in its history 😍.
Absolutely delighted to announce investigative journalist @kirsty_johnston is rejoining the @NZStuff team after several years away. Welcome home!.
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After nearly two (2) years living in Tauranga I’ve finally lost it and I’m arguing with people about why white supremacy is, indeed, a problem, on the local Facebook page someone stop me.
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Got home from dinner just now to find my mentions full of transphobes attacking me and I just want to say to them all: Trans women are women.
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Remember when everyone was like “Millenials are entitled and lazy” and then we turned out to be a whole generation of workaholics who have no boundaries and are still on email at 10pm at night lol.
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@ScootFoundation That’s no because the Uffindell allegations were substantiated by five witnesses, put to him, and the story checked by lawyers before publishing as opposed to Guarav’s allegations which were tossed into the news cycle completely unchecked … in an opinion piece.
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"A woman's sexual history or how she dresses will be out of bounds in future court cases under a raft of reforms designed to protect victims from being unfairly treated and retraumatised" - have to say, this is good work from @janlogie & @AndrewLittleMP .
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Hi my name is Paddy and I have been expelled from doggy day care for barking too excitedly and causing all the other dogs to bark
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People can't get their head around pronouns changing but QC becomes KC and let me tell you they are ACROSS IT.
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Things that would actually make a difference this IWD.-equal pay.-free childcare.-end patriachy.-pockets.
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Today while out reporting on the alleged tsunami I was asked for a cigarette, asked on a date, got bought a coffee and then got sat on by a dog. Great day all round.
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Omg we just ran into the Advance NZ protest. thousands of people. every single conspiracy theory from 5G to anti vax, and then anti abortion, anti mask, anti 1080, anti media anti UN. really hard to watch
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This is my brother. He really loved Murray. What a cool guy eh. THE END
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I have dozens of abusive messages emails and had to take down my professional facebook page after writing a column on Bridges BUT a contact just called and put their "older" (her words!) mum on the phone to say she "so appreciated it" and had shared it with "the girls". Worth it!.
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Dad calls:”People keep telling me some stupid rumour about a girl breaking into quarantine and the media not reporting it because the government told them not to and I’ve told them the media are like rabid dogs and would never do that, is that the right answer?” . Me: “. yes”😂.
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Lotte was so excited about democracy she woke us up at 6am and has been pacing the house in anticipation since #catsnotatpollingstations
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The irony of the rest of the world developing tall poppy syndrome towards NZ, when that is actually our speciality?.
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Now is probably as good a time as any to say that after two years writing almost exclusively about domestic abuse and gender violence and the family court, I’m taking a break from it. Next year I’ll be focusing on climate change, a new challenge for me.
Today my investigation into the way NZ treats family violence begins. We know it’s our biggest problem and yet our response is inadequate, and dismissive, and burdens the victim with keeping safe. This first story is about protection orders. Please read
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20 children die and 30,000 are hospitalised every year from preventable, housing-related diseases but CARRY ON.
Landlords 'should wait on election result' before installing heating: lobby, via @nzherald
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At Countdown Dominion Rd and every single person in the line is wearing a mask. If you weren’t at this point I feel like it would actually be awkward.
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You all might remember the family court saga of a woman whose ex-husband had taken 100 cases against her, and counting, that I wrote about last year. Well…someone in government read that story and justice minister Kiri Allan is proposing a law change .
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@JudithCollinsMP How strange that the outcome of selling off state houses as the population rate increases and house prices and rents rise is . homelessness.
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Sorry to ruin everyone’s cool conspiracy fun I know it’s exciting to think there’s like, a mega plan and everyone is Machiavellian but there’s just me alone in my office with my dog (pictured for proof) forgetting to have lunch until 2pm most days
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Remember when the Ministry for Women predicted this and were like, ‘if you only create “shovel ready” jobs ie jobs for men, women are going to suffer and everything will go backward’ and everyone was like, ‘whatever ladies’ and . .
11,000 New Zealanders have lost their jobs – and 10,000 of them were women.
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She was 13. He was 26. But she sent him some friendly text messages so go ahead and quash the convictions, and don’t bother with new ones, your honour.
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Every night at 8pm my dog puts all his toys on his bed and then goes to sleep under the couch and I’m sorry but it’s too cute
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"They're not young, they're not beautiful, they're not healthy and tragic. They're not Grace Millane. They're the kind of stories we forget all the time." - I wrote about the three women killed after lockdown - Tania, Angela, Shirley. Remember them 🙏.
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It would be really great if the messaging here from police about sexual assault in central Wellington was less "it's an alcohol problem" and more "it's a rape problem". You can choose to get drunk and not rape people, it's not even that hard.
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Sam Uffindell has just said in a stand-up that there will be other people he has hurt at high school.
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Has been a pain in the ass all day, pulling my clothes, pawing me, barkin, running up and down the stairs … I thought he wanted to go for a walk but turns out he was telling me the cat was trapped in the garage 😬
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“There’s no military solution to this and we need to get into a space where we can start addressing the root causes which is the denial of Palestinian statehood.” - Helen Clark
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What a night! Thanks so much for the lovely messages everyone! It’s very overwhelming. And thanks to @kate_g_evans and @michelle_duff for making sure the Reporter Of The Year cup actually left the pub with me, that’s true friendship
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The truth is just that I got a very vague tip the day after the by-election. Like, very vague. It took me ages to stack it up and then the victim had to decide to talk and then I had to fact check it and the literal second we had enough info we put it to Uffindell and published.
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Mum’s just called to say she’s making basil pesto from the garden, quince jelly, more feijoa cake, plum chutney and they’re having a roast for tea. Meanwhile I’m trying to decide if I need three, or four, Toffee Pops for a full meal.
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It was the most perfect day in Tauranga today except someone went around painting out the Māori words off all the public bins, all over the city 😢
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It makes me feel slightly sick tweeting this because it was so personal and frankly, awful, but greater good and all that. Here’s what it’s like to have a concussion
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On the assumption everyone loves wedding photos … some pics from Saturday!! Thanks to the weather gods, our families, and our lovely photographer Erica Jane who must have heard the speeches about my lack of patience and already sent these thru 😍
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I rang a 90-year-old Pākehā chap for some information today and he answered the phone with “kia ora” so kia ora to that George.
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Pacific island horticulture workers are living in crowded, damp, freezing rooms and keep getting sick. But if they don’t work, they don’t get paid. One told me on Friday “we just want to go home.” Story here:
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The lack of transparency is ironic (at best) given National have gone on and on and on about Labour and transparency for the last five years.
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The irony of writing about the abuse of women and then receiving dozens of abusive emails about it, as a women.
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Look at these queens! Out here protesting gender violence and sexual assault, never mind their principal and everyone trying to keep them quiet 🙌🙌🙌.
Students protesting sexual harassment turned back from boys' school by police
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I am so sick of reading court judgments where men committing domestic violence is characterised as a "moment of madness" and not a physical expression of coercive control.
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I met lawyer Sue Grey to try and work out why she’s so dedicated to pushing conspiracy theories - about Covid, about 1080, about 5G - even when her work hurts people. She was warm, charming, and completely convinced of her own rightness. Story here: .
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I wrote about how a family violence programme that focuses on men’s behaviour and takes them out of the house - rather than forcing their victims to flee - is helping reduce offenders and it’s super interesting please read 🙏
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Really enjoying the reactions of everyone assuming I'll change my name post-wedding. and I mean literally everyone assumes this even tho it's 2021 and I didn't come with two camels or a hope chest.
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It’s winter in NZ and I know this because my boyfriend is wearing a woollen sweater . with his shorts.
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The implications of the Depp v Heard trial are already so chilling. This is an email I got from a survivor - who wants to tell her story - just yesterday. In New Zealand.
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How to target the absolute lowest common denominator because you’re rich and bored and a bit disgruntled.
An enormous family fortune is fuelling the rise of a new media startup that welcomes the angry and cancelled with open arms.
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My mother-in-law was so happy I’d been nominated for Reporter Of The Year until I told her @GuyonEspiner was nominated too and she says “oh I love Guyon he’s got my vote” 😂🤦🏼♀️.
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Today my investigation into the way NZ treats family violence begins. We know it’s our biggest problem and yet our response is inadequate, and dismissive, and burdens the victim with keeping safe. This first story is about protection orders. Please read
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Omg apparently a whole war happened and I missed it.
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My boyfriend is at his stag party. Toddler nephew set off the house alarm. Loud beeping. I don’t have the code. Howling sirens. Called boyfriend for code, but they’ve “confiscated” his phone. Howling sirens and puppy. Call brother and and threaten to cancel wedding. Have code ☺️.
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Good bye and good riddance. And the same goes to everyone who sent Cam nasty tips about me too, I really enjoyed the abusive emails and the rape threats, cheers.
The end of the Whaleoil blog - from an outlet for depression to financial pressure and court battles, via @nzherald
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Because I have been reading so much about the climate crisis I have started to drop the cheery fact “this is what summer’s going to be like more and more now” into conversation and I have never been less popular.
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Unsure if everyone knows this but, more and more, the stories reporters write and news sites promote are determined by analytics - what has done well before (house prices!), what gets people to subscribe (private school rankings) and not by traditional news values /1.
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Before/after running the Rotorua half marathon 💪🏃♀️
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Last year I noticed something strange in the police rape data. After nine months work @vizowl and I can finally publish this, about why alleged rapists are not being prosecuted
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I've been asking everyone "what's the biggest climate change issue in New Zealand?". Almost always, they say agriculture. So I looked into how the goverment's plan to price farming emissions was born, and how it fell apart. Part one is about lobbying:.
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Had an intense flashback on my walk today to the meningococcal outbreak of my teens. Remember? When sharing a drink bottle or god forbid pashing at a party was literally terrifying . And realised that is a distant memory because in 2004 we got the vaccine for everyone under 20.
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@CitizenBomber She’s right, ask any expert, read all the cabinet papers, read the police data, the death review reports, go to anti violence classes and see who’s in there, go to family court, ask women you know, she’s just quoting facts.
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We got a dog 🐶 Meet Paddington 😍 You can call him Paddy for short
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If someone at the presser could just quickly get Ashley Bloomfield to address whether the super moon coming into Scorpio will help fight coronavirus that would really help with a Facebook argument I'm currently observing thanks.
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What is the climate cost of parents in SUVs idling outside their children's school for half an hour each day.
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“A woman in the crowd said she had been used to seeing the same houses on her daily commute and didn’t want the area to change.”. NIMBYs are really running out of ideas here .
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Just got back to Auckland to discover I’d lost the parking ticket in Christchurch. I explained to the staffer, who gave me a free card and said (confusingly) “thank you”. Only when I got to the car did I realise she was wearing a hijab and then I sobbed my bloody eyes out 💔😭.
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Female journalists in NZ watching this court case like 👀👀🤔🤔.
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2020 reflection: This year i unfollowed lots of media types and replaced them with indigenous women. Best decision. I have learned so much and am so grateful - every time I think about quitting this joint, these are the voices I know I’d miss! Thread to say thank you to follow.
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One of my little cousins made masks for her soft toys and it’s killing me 😭😭😭
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Just a quick shout out to all the “gender critical” folks clogging up my mentions over the past 24 hours, hello, good evening and trans women are women.
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