SEDRO-WOOLLEY — On Monday morning, Michael Bonacci and David Bricka plan to place a notarized form and a $50 check in the mail.

A moment in front of a mailbox isn’t quite as dramatic as standing before a judge or a preacher, but it will be a long-awaited moment for the Sedro-Woolley couple. About three to five business days later, the state will formally recognize them as having a committed relationship.

“Our friends and family recognize us, but to have our state recognize the relationship …” a smiling Bonacci said, sitting alongside Bricka in their usual spots on a favorite leather couch Thursday.

After five years together, Bonacci and Bricka are among the many couples who are expected to file with the state’s new domestic partnership registry, which goes into effect today. The Secretary of State’s Corporations Division will begin processing domestic partnership declarations Monday.

Created by the state Legislature this past April, the registry gives same-sex couples and unmarried, senior heterosexual couples a handful of rights that married couples enjoy, such as hospital visitation and the administration of an estate if one partner dies without a will.

To be eligible to register, partners must meet several requirements, including sharing a residence and being at least 18 years old, or, in the case of senior couples, one must be at least 62 years old.

“We can have some legitimacy,” Bricka said of what registering for domestic partnership offers him. “We tell our friends that we can have a party because we can visit each other in the hospital. We laugh, but it’s really quite stunning.”

Gay activists and senior citizen advocates say the new registry offers basic but universal rights to unmarried homosexual and senior couples.

“The whole deal boils down to civil rights,” said Bruce Reeves, president of Washington State Senior Citizens’ Lobby, which advocated for the registry. “There’s no whole reason why the elderly should (not) enjoy the same civil rights as everybody else.”

While homosexual couples cannot marry, many seniors choose not to after forging new relationships in the later years of their lives. Reasons vary from not being able to afford losing the pensions of their deceased spouses to not wanting to upset their children from previous marriages.

Betty J. Trible, 82, and John W. Munday, 83, are a local senior couple who are considering filing for a partnership.

After Munday’s wife of nearly 45 years passed away, a mutual friend introduced him and Trible in 1991. The two say they quickly fell in love over a cup of coffee. For 16 years, they have split their time between Trible’s Anacortes apartment and Munday’s Bellingham home.

“We have so much fun,” Trible said, lovingly holding onto Munday’s arm Thursday. “We play cards; we go places. It’s so much better to go to restaurants with a partner.”
Having attended everything from weddings to funerals together, the two are well integrated into each other’s families. They’re committed, just not married. When Munday had to undergo surgery for a triple bypass, his doctor spoke to both Trible and Munday so they could make decisions together.

But some couples find their access in health care situations is limited — sometimes prohibited — because they aren’t married. As a former hospice director, that reality hits Bonacci hard. Though neither he nor Bricka have had any serious health issues, Bonacci said it was scary thinking that doctors could prevent him from seeing Bricka during an emergency.

As the first time that Washington state is legally recognizing homosexual couples, the domestic partnership registry is a step in the right direction, Bonacci and Bricka say. But they eventually would also like to gain all the rights that heterosexual married couples have. The primary sponsor of the state bill that created the registry, Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, said creating domestic partnerships is “about building our way legally to marriage.”

“There’s over a thousand benefits that married couples afford,” Bricka said.

“We’re going to get (about) four of them,” Bonacci continued. “I don’t want to be cynical, (but) I want the civil rights.”

Some of the benefits that the law does not offer domestic partners are shared health benefits, pensions and custody of children.

“We’re living our lives is what we’re doing,” said Bricka, director of the Sedro-Woolley Chamber of Commerce. Bonacci is a design consultant for a Mount Vernon homebuilder.

“We work hard, we pay our taxes, we own a dog,” Bricka said. “It’s important for people to see that ‘wow,’ we’re just like everyone else — trying to make it in this world.”
Though limited in its scope, the registry is still expected to draw a crowd at the Secretary of State’s Corporations Division office in Olympia. With couples traveling from across the state to have the experience of turning in their registration in person, division Director Mike Ricchio is predicting long lines for the first few days this week. However, the division is encouraging the public to download online forms and mail them in, as Bonacci and Bricka are doing.

What Ricchio doesn’t know, though, is whether his division will receive more applications from homosexual couples or senior citizen heterosexual couples.

* Franny White can be reached at 360-416-2148 or .