JERUSALEM - Undeterred by the outrage of ultra-Orthodox Jews or the fear of terrorist attack, hundreds of gays and their supporters marched through the heart of downtown Jerusalem under heavy police guard yesterday in the city's first gay pride parade.

By the ebullient standards of gay pride parades in San Francisco or even Tel Aviv - where an annual march has for years drawn tens of thousands - it was a subdued affair.

One man wore a red velvet dress and a blond wig with waist-length braids. A teen-age girl had strapped rainbow-colored butterfly wings to her back, and many people waved rainbow banners.

But most of the men and women who walked quietly down King George V Street, the site of numerous suicide bombings, were dressed in jeans and T-shirts. For the most part, the sparse crowds that turned out to watch them neither cheered nor heckled as the marchers passed by.

Gays in this divided and deeply conservative city said the fact that the parade took place was a victory for a community that for years has felt unwanted here and for a city beaten down by nearly two years of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.

"This is a glorious day," said Hagai El-Ad, one of the parade's organizers and director of the gay organization Open House.

"Our office is on Ben Yehuda Street, where we have many times heard bombs go off near us," he said. "This is our answer to that, to have a parade that isn't just about lesbian and gay rights and equality, but about optimism. This is a chance for people to express their hope and say that they want to live together in Jerusalem."

A handful of religious protesters held a small counterdemonstration.

Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert expressed understanding for the marchers but didn't attend and refused to share the costs of the parade.

Gay life in Israel and the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is only tentatively emerging from an underground existence. The Jewish and Muslim religious establishments frown on open displays of homosexuality, and gay groups have had to fight hard to gain acceptance. Tel Aviv began holding a gay pride parade in 1993, and it has grown into an annual celebration that emphasizes that city's relatively tolerant atmosphere.

For the most part, the parade passed peacefully, ending with a rally in the city's Independence Park that police said drew about 4,000 people.

"This march is symbolic and very powerful," said El-Ad, the activist. "For us, it is very moving to be able to openly walk the streets of a city which is also ours."

Mary Curtius is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.