- The Washington Times - Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, now national president of the Boy Scouts of America, says he took the job because “the country needs Scouting now more than ever,” and gave no sign he plans to reopen the group’s divisive debates over the role of gays in Scouting.

“In Scouting, there’s a secular emphasis on values and virtue that is not found anyplace else,” Mr. Gates said in an article in the October issue of Esquire, the widely read men’s magazine.

“We don’t teach civic values in schools anymore, so where else are kids going to learn it?” he asked.

The article “Are There Still Boy Scouts?” written by Mike Sager, includes an interview with Mr. Gates, including his family’s history with Scouting, but doesn’t break new ground on the gay membership issue.

As previously reported, Mr. Gates said that if he had been involved with BSA leadership when gay membership was being discussed, “he would have moved to allow openly gay adults in the organization,” the article said.

But after being named in May as the BSA’s top volunteer leader at the national leadership’s annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, Mr. Gates also told reporters, “I fully accept the decision that was democratically arrived at by 1,500 volunteers.”

The BSA voted in May 2013 to admit openly gay youth but maintained, without discussion, its policy not to admit open or avowed homosexuals as adult leaders, employees or volunteers.

Rather than rehashing the gay membership issue in Esquire, Mr. Gates — who turns 71 on Sept. 25, and who has been an Eagle Scout since he was age 15 — said he is concerned about modernizing the BSA, publicizing the millions of hours of volunteer work that Scouts perform each year and keeping the BSA’s virtues visible and available to boys all over the country.

Bryan Wendell, senior editor of Scouting and Eagles’ Call magazines, said the Esquire article was “no puff piece” but a “must-read” that could cause Americans to take another look at Scouting.

The Gates article ran in tandem with an announcement about Esquire’s new male-mentoring campaign: David Granger, editor in chief, said Tuesday that Esquire’s Mentoring Project will encourage 100,000 men over the next five years to become role models for boys and youth.

Meanwhile, at Scouts for Equality, an advocacy group created to persuade the BSA to admit openly gay adults, co-founder Zach Wahls said he and his allies have “look[ed] between the lines” and are encouraged by Mr. Gates’ comments on gay adult membership in the BSA.

“Even though he isn’t publicly coming out and saying that he’s going to litigate this issue again inside the Boy Scouts of America,” given his past and present support of gay inclusion, “we’re actually convinced that this is a much bigger announcement than some of us were willing to give it credit for at the time,” Mr. Wahls said in a video strategy report this month.

Mr. Wahls, an Eagle Scout, got into the gay membership issue because his two lesbian mothers are blocked from helping with Scouting.

In August the BSA released a public service campaign to tout Scouting experiences for all boys, regardless of where they live, and grow its membership.

Around 2.5 million youth are now part of BSA, but the 2013 fight over admitting openly gay youth helped lead to a 6 percent decline in membership.

Separately, Trail Life USA, a new Christ-centered, outdoor-and character-building organization for boys and men, said it has 14,000 members in 450 troops, with hundreds more in its chartering pipeline. About 60 percent of Trail Life USA members migrated from BSA, the new group says.

• Cheryl Wetzstein can be reached at cwetzstein@washingtontimes.com.

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