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DENVER (AP) -- Colorado's civil unions measure appears headed for certain defeat.

Republicans and Democrats are spending the first day of a special legislative session pointing fingers over the proposal to give same-sex couples the rights of married couples.

Republican House Speaker Frank McNulty blasted the civil unions measure as a divisive waste of time and assigned the proposal to a committee likely to reject it. Democrats, meanwhile, blamed McNulty for preventing the measure from seeing a debate in the full House, where it would pass.

Democrats say see no point trying to pass the measure again in the state Senate. That means the civil unions measure is unlikely to pass.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper called the special session last week, calling civil unions "a fundamental question of fairness and civil rights."

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