Some 15,000 people turned out on Thursday for Jerusalem's annual Gay Pride parade, organized by the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance.
Some 2,500 uniformed and plainclothes police officers guarded the marchers in light of threats by extremists to disrupt the celebration.
Waving rainbow flags emblazoned with the Star of David and blasting music, throngs of people marched through the streets of central Jerusalem amid tight police security.
The festivities were laced with anger this year over a decision last month by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to pass legislation supporting surrogacy for gay fathers. The prime minister had initially supported amending the surrogacy law but at the last minute voted against it, apparently under pressure from ultra-Orthodox Jewish coalition partners.
Some marchers at the parade Thursday chanted slogans calling Netanyahu a "homophobe."
Same-sex couples held hands, others held signs reading "proud to be equal" and "I want to be a father."
Israeli LGBTQ advocates and their supporters went on strike across the country about two weeks ago in protest of the legislation. The protest generated widespread support and hundreds of employers said they allowed employees to observe the strike without penalty. It also grew into a general call for equality, following other recent controversial legislation that appeared to target Israeli liberalism.
"I'm here because I'm an LGBT person who lives in the State of Israel," Omer Yehoshua, wearing red lipstick and carrying a rainbow flag, said.
"I want my rights to be equal to those of a heterosexual person who lives in this country, so that in the future I can, if I'm with a partner, get married and register as a parent, to bring children into the world, that our rights be equal."
"I think this surrogacy law is a symbol of inequality and it [shows] that the government has still failed to realize that the LGBTQ community in Israel is equal to anybody," said Ofer Erez of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance which organized the parade.
"We are here today to stop asking for equality and start demanding it," Erez said.
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters, who were kept on the sidelines far from the march, held up banners, including one that read: "Do not anger the God of Israel."
Chanoch Obel was among the protesters demonstrating against the parade.
"They want to destroy our culture, they want to destroy our society, they want to destroy the nature of family. In Jerusalem, of all places in the world. ... Tel Aviv we understand, Jerusalem ... horrible," he said.
In 2015, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish zealot stabbed 16-year-old Shira Banki to death and wounded five others at the Jerusalem pride parade. He was later sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison.
A giant placard with a picture of Banki was positioned on the parade route. Marchers placed flowers at the foot of the photo. Some said prayers and others stood in silence. A rally at the end of the parade opened with a minute of silence in her honor.
