A lawyer known for his gay rights advocacy committed a “protest suicide” Saturday by lighting himself on fire to denounce global warming.
Sixty-year-old David Buckel poured fossil fuel over himself and then lit a match to draw attention to the way pollution affects the earth, The New York Daily News reported.
“I am David Buckel, and I just killed myself by fire as a protest suicide. I apologize to you for the mess,” he wrote in a note found next to his charred body.
The fire department responded to a 6:40 a.m. call about a blaze of fire at park in Brooklyn. While joggers and other park goers saw the human blaze, Buckel reportedly called 911 and made sure to leave a detailed explanation as to who he was and why he chose to kill himself.
“Most humans on the planet now breathe air made unhealthy by fossil fuels, and many die early deaths as a result – my early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves,” Buckel added in the note. He also included a business card in the note to ensure police would know his identity.
Buckel is most well known for a case involving a murdered transgender teen where he served as the lead attorney; he also worked for gay rights organization Lambda Legal as the marriage project director where he helped strategize gay marriage cases in various states.
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