Latest southern Colorado news, weather and sports from FOX21 News

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- A Colorado civil unions bill cleared a major hurdle when it passed through a Republican led house committee.

The bill passed late Thursday in a 6-5 vote, after failing in the same committee last year.

Friday the bill made more progress as it passed through the house finance committee.

The bill has to pass through one more committee before ending on the governor's desk. Neither of those stops are anticipated to be a problem.

Reaction to the news is mixed.

"I thought it was great. It was definitely a surprise," Charles Irwin, Executive Director of Colorado Springs Pride, said.

"I think what is finally happening is that lawmakers are seeing that people want equality as a whole," he said.

If the bill passes, Irwin said the LGBT community would be one step closer to equality.

"We want to have committed loving relationships just like everyone else," he said.

The bill would grant same sex couples similar rights as marriage, but those opposed to the bill said there are already laws in place and this measure is just a way to open the door for same sex marriage.

"Colorado already has one of the most expansive laws on the books giving protections to unmarried couples," Carrie Gordon Earll, spokesperson for Focus on the Family, said.

"We have a designated beneficiaries law and a second parent adoption law that gives you almost everything that's in civil unions," she added.

Gordon Earll said the civil union bill threatens Amendment 43, which passed in 2006 and defined marriage as being between one man and one woman.

"What will happen is this will be challenged to a federal court that will say 'look you've created a similar but unequal situation here and the equal protection rights are being violated,'" she said.

Gordon Earll said that would lead to a multi-million dollar lawsuit.

"We've seen that happen in other states as in California where they have a marriage amendment almost identical to ours, they have a law that is similar to the civil unions, and the courts there have said 'you can't have both,'' Gordon Earll said.

But those in favor of the law said opponents are just using scare tactics.

"Really look at the facts and take the rhetoric that you're seeing from these large right-wing Focus on the Family type organizations that use all types of tactics, fear, and 'it's gonna cost us money,' and 'it's gonna erode the society,' and so forth. Look at the reality in the facts because the propaganda that they are preaching is not accurate," Irwin said.

Gordon Earll said the goal of public policy should be to keep the family unit intact.

"Same sex unions and civil marriages create environments that guarantee that some kids are gonna be denied a mom or a dad, and two dads don't equal a mom. We need to do everything that we can to make sure that kids have the opportunity to have both, and to create intentionally homes that are motherless or fatherless just is not good public policy when we have other ways to help protect unmarried couples as we do under existing Colorado law," she said.

"I find it interesting that the name Focus on the Family is fighting against a family unit. That's what we're fighting for is equality, that we can then have a true recognized family unit," Irwin said.

If the bill passes Colorado would join more than a dozen other states that allow gay marriages or civil unions.