David Buckel, prominent gay rights lawyer, burns himself to death in New York to protest global warming

A “green” activist who was a pioneering lawyer for gay and transgender rights — including in the notorious “Boys Don’t Cry” rape murder case — committed suicide by setting himself on fire Saturday morning in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park in a grisly act of protest against the ecological destruction of the Earth. A famous lawyer known nationally as one of the key champions for gay rights in the courts was found dead in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park early Saturday morning after setting himself on fire in what he said was a protest against the use of fossil fuels. The Daily News reports that Buckel left a suicide note in a shopping cart near his body that said he hoped his death was “honorable” and “might serve others.”

The New York Times said it received an emailed copy of the note, which also said, “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 was the lead attorney in in a lawsuit involving Brandon Teena, a transgender man who was murdered in Nebraska. 'Engaging advocacy'

Mr Buckel was the lead lawyer in a case in which police in Nebraska were found to have failed to protect Brandon Teena, a transgender teen who had been raped and assaulted and was later murdered in the state of Nebraska. The case attracted quite a lot of publicity and was even adapted into a movie, concentrating on Teena’s life named “Boys Don’t Cry,” which won actress Hillary Swank an Academy Award. Hilary Swank won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Teena in the 1999 movie “Boys Don’t Cry.”

Buckel also served as marriage project director at Lambda Legal, a national organization that fights for LGBT rights, where he was the strategist behind same-sex marriage cases in New Jersey and Iowa. Susan Sommer, a former Lambda Legal attorney who is now the general counsel for the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice in New York City, told the Times that Buckel “was all about justice, but he was also all about what it means to be human.”

Sommer added, “He was a very smart and methodical lawyer.
Prominent New York LGBT and environmental lawyer David Buckel commits suicide by setting himself on fire with petrol in Prospect Park. He leaves and circulates a suicide note indicating his death is in protest against the use of fossil fuels.