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A 72-year-old Australian man asked federal immigration authorities in Los Angeles on Monday to reopen his 1975 petition for a marriage-based green card, some 39 years after he and his husband wed. Anthony Sullivan of Australia was married to his late spouse, Richard Adams, in Boulder, Colo., by a county clerk who was offering marriage licenses to same-sex couples. When they returned to California, Sullivan applied for a marriage-based green card from Immigration and Naturalization Services. The response he received from the agency was a letter that said “You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.” Adams passed away in 2012, but Sullivan’s fight could be an important one for the immigrant spouses of gays and lesbians.