Robert Suttle

Social Justice Educator
He/Him/His

Robert Suttle is a recognized HIV racial justice leader with over ten years of standing in the gap for the HIV movement before the U.S. criminalization system; cultivating relationships with other cross-movement leaders, collectively advocating for meaningful involvement of communities most impacted, centering Black communities and communities of color, connecting advocacy to decriminalize HIV to other movements around prisons, policing, and criminalization.

Robert is a Louisiana native and graduate of Louisiana State University in Shreveport. He embarked upon a career in the judicial system, working for the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal, which abruptly ended when his life was altered by a grossly unjust HIV prosecution and conviction. Instead of retreating, he has become a highly sought-after speaker and leading national advocate with the distinction of being perhaps the first person with HIV anywhere in the world who was prosecuted for an HIV crime and went public to raise awareness and mobilize advocacy for change.

Robert serves as an advisor on the HIV Justice Network’s Global Advisory Panel (GAP). He is former assistant director of the Sero Project, a U.S. based network of people living with HIV advocating for the end of HIV criminalization and featured in the Sero short film HIV is Not a Crime. Before joining Sero in March 2012, Robert worked as a case manager and prevention specialist at the Philadelphia Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. He has been living with HIV for 17 years.