Tim Courtois, an American religious counselor and anti-transgender activist, published anti-trans writing in Quillette and appeared on anti-trans podcasts.
Courtois stopped accepting new clients in July 2024, reportedly due to illness.
Background
Timothy James Courtois was born in 1978. Courtois earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Michigan in 2001 and a master’s degree from the Orlando branch of Reformed Theological Seminary in 2007. Courtois worked as a counselor at New Life Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In 2013 Courtois married Jessica Land (Hibma) Courtois (born 1986). They have children Vivian (born 2016) and Finn (born 2019).
Anti-transgender activsm
In 2020, Courtois complained in anti-trans publication Quillette about having to deal with sex and gender minorities as part of sexual health training:
This quasi-religious conception of gender was connected to the message that trans-identifying children should be given easy access to puberty blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones. Both treatments were breezily declared to be safe options with little risk of adverse consequences—something that, again, we now know to be untrue. And yes, we were fed the morbid claim that any delay in affirming a child’s self-diagnosed trans identity could relegate them to the grave: “Do you want a live trans-child or a dead cisgender-child?” is the question we were trained to use to pressure parents into immediate affirmation. To summarize: If a child agrees to have an adult pedophile stimulate his genitals, that desire should be disregarded (because children are by definition unable to give real consent). But if a child wants to have an adult surgically remove those genitals, his desire should be honored: Suddenly, the child’s expression of consent is not only valid, but ironclad; and acquiescence is not only permissible but mandatory.
These comments brought Courtois to the attention of other anti-transgender activists, including Benjamin Boyce and Critical Therapy Antidote. Courtois soon appeared on Gender: A Wider Lens, an anti-trans podcast by Genspect leaders Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad.
References
Courtois, Tim (October 31, 2020). I Signed Up to Study Sexual Health. What I Got Was Gender Ideology, Fetishism, and Porn. Quillette https://quillette.com/2020/10/31/i-signed-up-to-study-sexual-health-what-i-got-was-gender-ideology-fetishism-and-porn/
Media
Critical Therapy Antidote with Jaco Van Zyl, Christine Sefein, and Tim Courtois (June 11, 2023). Cynical Therapies Book: Tim Courtois – CSJ Indoctrination in Sexuality Education. Ep. 13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH5UCA1YZoE
Gender: A Wider Lens with Stella O’Malley, Sasha Ayad and Tim Courtois (February 19, 2021). EPISODE 11 – Sex Therapy & Education: a Conversation with Tim Courtois. Gender: A Wider Lens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWEhz2FiZ90
Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce and Tim Courtois (January 18, 2021). It’s Complicated! Counseling & the Human Condition with Timothy Courtois. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3plP85-NMs
Resources
Tim Courtois (timcourtois.com)
WordPress (wordpress.com)
X/Twitter (x.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
YouTube (youtube.com)