In 2003, prominent right-wing radical György Budaházy and a group of about 30 anti-gay protestors blew whistles and chanted slogans such as "dirty queers" at marchers as the parade crossed the Elizabeth Bridge.

[5] In 2004, a few activists from the center-right Christian-Democratic Hungarian Democratic Forum political party stood along the route of the procession blowing whistles and holding signs displaying quotations from the Bible, while police took one man into custody for throwing a rock at an officer at the beginning of the parade.

However, the remote-control malfunctioned, forcing Tomcat and an accomplice to climb up the pillar to manually disengage the sign reading "stupid queer gays" (hülye buzi melegek), though only after the parade had passed underneath.

Several balloon-decorated flatbed trucks marshaled the parade down the avenue, blaring techno-pop from mounted speakers and carrying the standard array of shirtless young men, transvestites, neo-punk lesbians and campy-costumed figures, including a man in tight shorts, a black shirt, and a clerical collar, who held a big pink book bearing a cross and was later to become the focus of attacks from the far-right media, particularly Kuruc.info.

Several hundred police escorted the procession in full riot gear, ready to protect participants from expected aggression en route to the parade's destination at a dance club located on the Pest side of the Danube called Buddha Beach.

Approximately 500 protesters awaited the parade behind a metal-fence barrier erected at the site of Jobbik's officially announced anti-gay demonstration at the corner of the Oktogon, chanting "dirty queers!"

A rank of riot police wedged between the procession and the protesters, who had begun to bombard participants with, in addition to eggs, empty beer cans, smoke bombs and plastic bags filled with petroleum jelly and sand, the latter alluding to the Hungarian slang word homokos, literally "sandy", for "gay".

[10] Police narrowly averted a more brutal assault on the parade, chasing off a group of approximately 30 hooligans, who discarded bags full of empty bottles and fist-sized rocks as they fled down a side street.

The Budapest police, after effectively buffering marchers from the protesters during the procession, failed to protect people leaving Buddha Beach later that evening, when, according to parade organizers, 11 attacks took place in the vicinity of the club against gays, two of whom required medical treatment.

[14] Budapest Police Chief Gábor Tóth, evidently aware that the 2008 Gay Dignity Procession was likely to elicit even greater protest than that in 2007, on June 11 informed the event's organizer, the Rainbow Mission Foundation [Szivárvány Misszió Alapítvány], that the BRFK had prohibited its request to hold the 2008 parade along Andrássy Avenue on July 5 on the grounds that it would "impede the circulation of mass transit and vehicle traffic".

)[15] The BRFK retracted its prohibition of the gay parade the very same day, on June 12, announcing one week later that it had approved the Rainbow Mission Foundation's original request to hold the event along the established route on the customary first Saturday of July.

On June 18, Budaházy and his close associate, the leader of the radical-nationalist 64 Counties Youth Movement [64 Vármegye Ifjúsági Mozgalom] László Toroczkai, issued a joint communiqué regarding the parade:[18] We will not permit aberrant foreigners of this or that color to force their alien and sick world on Hungary.

The Rainbow Rampage, the aggressive pederast caravan of degenerate foreigners that is traversing Europe, will arrive to its final stop in Budapest on July 4, Freemasonry's biggest holiday and the anniversary of the signing of America's Declaration of Independence, in order to celebrate queerdom in our capital for several days on end.

Beginning at 4 p.m. on July 5, this exhibitionist queer rabble will hold a public procession and street ball, trampling under foot all fundamental traditional moral values and proclaiming Hungary's occupation by aberrants and foreigners.

On June 28, an anonymous self-described founding member of a fan club for the Budapest soccer team Ferencváros, whose supporters have a highly publicized history of hooliganism and participation in right-wing extremist street aggression, published a letter on MÖM 's website stating that "we are answering the Hungarian Self-Defense Movement's appeal":[19] We will be there!

On June 26, Hungary's primary right-wing extremist website, Kuruc.info, published a list of gay bars, cafés, saunas, guest houses and hotels in Budapest.

This was an ominous development, since beginning in December 2007 a group called the Arrows of the Hungarians National Liberation Army (Magyarok Nyilai Nemzeti Felszabadító Hadsereg) had firebombed several residences and other locations implicitly identified as targets on the website.

On July 3, Kuruc.info reported on the latter firebombing under the title Cleansing Fire Licks Another Mini Sodom in which the website noted that "Incidentally, we drew the attention of our readers to the sauna, just in case they wanted a little hot air."

Kuruc.info further prepared its readers for the gay parade with the publication of detailed instructions, including pictures, two days before the event, on how to fill eggs with dye for throwing at the marchers in the procession.

There is currently a government-inspired show-like trial taking place against the Hungarian Guard [Magyar Gárda], while liberals and left-wingers within several local councils have initiated the prohibition of this charitable organization from their territory, including Budapest.

At the same time, the police, in conformity with [Budapest Mayor] Gábor Demszky's expectations, chose to review their original decision and permitted the initially banned homosexual event.... We request that the self-defined Christian-conservative MDF and Fidesz-KDNP not distance themselves from Jobbik and the Hungarian Guard, but from the true extremists.

(Already in June, the main pages of the Kuruc.info and the Hungarian Self-Defense Movement websites had displayed countdown clocks showing the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds until the start of the 2008 Budapest gay parade.)

At least 10 people were injured,[30] including two policemen, and three media trucks were damaged; they hit, among others, liberal MP Gabor Horn, and broke the window of the police car in which Hungarian Socialist Party MEP Katalin Levai was riding with Gábor Szetey, the first out gay member of Hungary's government.