Gaia astrometry does not disfavor a binary origin for Long Secondary Periods

Long Secondary Period (LSP) in red giants remains an unresolved problem in stellar variability, with binarity being one of the most discussed explanations nowadays. We present an independent reassessment of the nearby LSP candidates analyzed by Shariat et. al. (2026), based on long-term All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) light curves of 224 Gaia Focused Product Release (Gaia FPR) sources within 1.5 kpc. Our inspection shows that only 103 stars, approximately 47% of the sample, exhibit convincing LSP-like variability, while most objects are in fact semiregular variables, with irregular or multi-periodic pulsations. This indicates substantial contamination by non-LSP stars. Using gaiamock simulations, we show that even nearby LSP stars, if LSP indicates binarity, are not necessarily expected to show higher Renormalized Unit Weight Error (RUWE) values. Consequently, the observed distance-RUWE relation does not rule out a binary origin of the LSP phenomenon.