May 25, 2015 2 min read

Robert Gates took over the Defense Department in 2006 and provided a much-needed shot of reality after five years of bluster from Donald Rumsfeld and his misbegotten dreams of transforming the Middle East at the barrel of a gun.

Now, Gates is providing the same bracing dose of realism for Boy Scouts of America.

Last Thursday, Gates, who is now the president of the organization, called for an end to the Boy Scouts’ ban on gay adult leaders. In an address at the Boy Scouts’ annual gathering in Atlanta, Gates warned the much-beloved organization could be the object of protracted and draining litigation if it stood pat and continued to bar gay adults from roles within the Boy Scouts.

Saying the change “will probably happen sooner rather than later,” Gates underscored that “we must deal with the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.”

At the same time, Gates allowed that churches that sponsor Scout troops should be allowed to “determine the standards for their Scout leaders.”

If the Boy Scouts end this policy soon – and it seems inevitable that it will – the change will represent another step forward for the group. Two years ago, after much controversy, the Boy Scouts voted to eliminate a policy barring admittance to gay youngsters.

The duties outlined in the Boy Scout oath, to “help other people at all times” and remain “physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight,” are virtues that are not limited by sexual orientation. If the Boy Scouts follow the plan that Gates outlined, it would at last bring one of the 20th century’s most esteemed and enduring institutions at last into the 21st.