Immigration OK for gay couple's LI stay

U.S. immigration officials have granted a rare reprieve to a gay South African national, allowing a Long Island same-sex couple to stay together in their Orient home.

Tim Smulian, 65, can now remain in the United States for a full year rather than having to leave the country and re-enter on a six-month tourist visa. Smulian married Orient resident Edwin Blesch in South Africa in 2007 but visa rules required the couple to live outside the United States for half a year.

Though U.S. citizens may sponsor immigrant spouses, Blesch couldn't sponsor Smulian because the federal government doesn't recognize same-sex marriages.

"We are absolutely thrilled," said Smulian, a former HIV and AIDS care counselor. "We have made a wonderful home here on Long Island and didn't want to really leave, but we had to follow the law."

Smulian has been a caretaker for Blesch, who is HIV positive, a condition advocates say helped their immigration case. Blesch, a retired English professor, had found it increasingly difficult to obtain medication and access care abroad.

"We have actually always stayed on the right side of the law, but it's been at an enormous cost to health and finances," said Blesch, 71. "I am an active part of my community. I pay my taxes. I have had a wonderful career teaching the youth of Long Island, so I've asked myself, 'Why are they telling me I can't be with the person I want to be with?' "

Some of New York's congressional delegation -- Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, and Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) -- helped the men win a reprieve.

The three have stated their support for equal rights of same-sex couples. Schumer called the reprieve the "right and humane thing to do" and Gillibrand stated that "committed couples deserve access to all the same immigration rights and protections as straight couples."

Bishop said Congress needed to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, and recognize same-sex marriages from New York and other states that permit such unions. "In a world in which the federal government recognizes the marriage of this couple, our intervention would not have been necessary," he said.

The decision was important to equal rights advocates, who helped Smulian and Blesch. But a recent study from the Williams Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles found that as many as 40,000 same-sex couples were barred from filing immigration petitions.

"The reprieve is a fantastic victory for them but it's important to know it's a temporary victory," said Steve Ralls, spokesman for Immigration Equality in Washington, D.C. "There is no permanent option to allow an American citizen to sponsor their same-sex spouse as straight couples do."