Tony Katavich is being remembered as a determined and influential man who has left a vital legacy for gay New Zealanders. After a long fight with cancer, the crucial leader of the 'Out! Empire' died last week, aged 78. He was farewelled at Auckland's Purewa All Saints Chapel yesterday. Writer and TV producer David Herkt says Katavich is someone who could never be replaced. He says Katavich was a man of opinion, who ran successful gay businesses in a less enlightened pre-homosexual law reform environment. “Tony and his business partners Brett Sheppard and John Kiddie were subject to raids and all the petty humiliations that government forces and bureaucracies could bring to bear on a gay business at that time. He was raided and faced customs seizures,” he says. “Tony was a fighter, taking cases to court, campaigning and funding law-reform activities and promoting them through his magazine, Out!” Herkt says Katavich was also a man “with a sense of humour, a certain charm, as well as immense patience”. “He was difficult in the way that people sure of their convictions always are difficult - while waiting for the world to catch up to them,” he says. “In the end, Tony was a winner as laws changed, gay businesses could openly operate and censorship standards changed to reflect reality. “Vale, Tony Katavich. We thank you.” Former New Zealand AIDS Foundation Chair and current Green MP Kevin Hague says Katavich was a very polarising character who inspired loyalties - but also entered into many feuds. “The thing that I really admired about him was that passion that he applied to all of the causes that he believed in. He believed very much in himself and his own judgement and backed himself 100 per cent. It was great to see someone doing that," he says. “Our community owes him a lot. He literally put his money where his mouth was back in the 70s.” He says for quite a lot of time what we refer to as the ‘gay business community’ was Katavich, or Katavich and his associates. “The example that he set forged the way for lots of others. I’m certain that the community that we know and love now, and I guess people take for granted, actually wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for his self-belief and determination."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 1st January 2014 - 1:50pm