NEW YORK (NEWS 12 NEW JERSEY/CNN) - Prominent gay rights attorney David S. Buckel killed himself on Saturday morning in a fatal plea for action on environmental issues.
The 60-year-old's body was found near the baseball fields at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
New York police say he set himself on fire.
Buckel led lawsuits legalizing same-sex marriage but recently turned his energies to environmental causes.
He left a handwritten suicide note saying he killed himself as a "protest suicide."
Buckel also emailed local news outlets saying his "early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves."
Buckel was known for directing major same-sex marriage cases in Iowa and New Jersey.
He also worked on a lawsuit on behalf of Brandon Teena, a transgender man who was raped and murdered in Nebraska, in 1993.
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