Current and former staff members of the nation’s largest gay newspaper chain say the company’s top editor thwarted efforts to run a story reporting now-Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman was gay, RAW STORY has learned. The editor denies killing the story.

These staffers assert that the part-owner and chief editor for the company’s five newspapers including The Washington Blade, Chris Crain, refused to print an article regarding the sexual orientation of the then-campaign manager for President Bush’s reelection campaign.

One staffer said Crain told others that he had confirmed Mehlman was gay, but refused to provide his sources to other reporters.

“Chris would confirm it,” the staffer said, “but he wouldn’t give out any names.”

“He’s not going to print anything,” another quipped.

Crain–who was Mehlman’s supervising editor for a Harvard public policy journal in law school and partnered with him in an organization in the early 1990’s–says he has not “credibly” confirmed Mehlman’s sexuality.