SPRINGFIELD - Gay Illinois couples would be allowed to enter civil unions with the same legal rights as marriage under legislation approved Wednesday by an Illinois House committee.

If the measure becomes law, Illinois would become only the fifth state to offer civil unions, which would give couples rights to estate benefits, child custody or adoption, property ownership and others now enjoyed by married couples. Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay marriage.

"Illinois is ready now for civil unions,'' the sponsor, Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, said at a Statehouse news conference. "The outpouring of public support shows it's ready for civil unions, and I hope one day it will come around to the concept of same-sex marriage.''

Harris said he previously proposed legalizing gay marriage but found more support for the civil unions concept.

Harris, a Chicago Democrat, said the plan will allow same-sex couples almost all the same legal obligations and privileges as marriage. It passed the House Human Services Committee by a 5-4 vote Wednesday and moves to the full House.

Civil unions would be very similar to marriages and would be available to heterosexual couples, Harris said. But civil unions would be authorized by their own law, separate from the one governing marriage, and would not require religious sanction.

Some opponents, however, see little difference between civil unions and same-sex marriage.

"It's marriage just by another name, the way I look at it," said state Rep. Shane Cultra, an Onarga Republican. "I'm not going to be able to support it."

Harris said religious groups would not have to consecrate the marriage.

But Rep. Patti Bellock of Hinsdale, the top-ranking Republican on the Human Services Committee, said it "seems as though the real spirit of the bill is a marriage act.''

Harris said he hopes to call it for a vote on the House floor this spring.

Civil unions are allowed in Connecticut, Vermont and, as of February, New Jersey. Domestic partnerships that offer benefits similar to civil unions are obtainable in California.

Extending rights to same-sex partners

In addition to the Human Rights Act that took effect in January 2006 and outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation, Illinois has extended insurance coverage to the same-sex partners of members of the largest state-employees' union in a contract negotiated in 2004.

Chicago and Cook County in October 2003 started a domestic-partner registry, but it is largely symbolic, carrying no legal or financial protections for gay and lesbian couples.

But Rep. Paul Froehlich, a Schaumburg Republican, said despite its name, a civil union changes the definition of marriage.

"If it can be defined to mean anything, then it may mean nothing,'' he said.

Froehlich said the legislation allows civil unions between two consenting adults, but could be changed in the future to allow for three or more.

Froehlich and others are sympathetic, however, to some problems gay couples face, particularly when hospitals allow only legal family members to visit patients.

But other legislation could address those difficulties, they said.

Lambda Legal, an advocacy group for gays and lesbians, said Wednesday's vote was a step toward its goal of legalized gay marriage.

"Illinois views same-sex couples, some together for decades, as strangers under the law,'' said Jim Bennett, Lambda's Midwest director.

The bill is HB1826.