Times Observer file photo Doug Hearn has been selected as a member of the board of directors for Keystone Equality, a new state-wide LGBTQ political organization.

A new statewide political organization has been formed to advance LGTBQ equality.

And a Warren resident, Doug Hearn, has been named to its initial board of directors.

The organization is Keystone Equality, which aims to advance civil rights for LGBTQ people at the local state and federal level. Special emphasis, according to the group, will be placed on voter mobilization, electoral advocacy and political organizing.

It was formed last November and Warren County is prominently represented.

“This is a Commonwealth-wide group,” Hearn, told the Times Observer. “I am in a unique position of representing the LGBTQ+ communities in rural areas of NW Pennsylvania.”

Hearn is a past member of Warren City Council and currently serves on the city’s Redevelopment Authority and Blighted Property Review Committee

He called his service with Keystone Equality “an opportunity to reward those (that) are working hard for equality and challenging those that may not see it as an opportunity for all of the Commonwealth to grow and prosper.”

“I was approached in part because of my previous work with Warren County Pride,” Hearn said. “But more specifically because of the hard questions I asked of candidates in the November Election. An organizer was in the audience when I asked specific and difficult questions of a candidate for Governor.

“He told me that when I asked about equality in housing and employment, he realized that many did not know that a person could marry the one they love on Saturday and experience a loss of a rental apartment on Monday or a loss of employment.”

Aims outlined by the organization include voter registration and Get Out The Vote efforts, endorsing LGBTQ policies and candidates and advocacy at the local and state level “through direct political organizing.”

Hearn said that planning sessions and structuring the organization occurred prior to the November election, followed by planning and strategy sessions in December.