The chair of Capital Pride wants police to lay charges following an incident at Saunders Farm where a man was photographed wearing a shirt with a blatantly anti-gay message.

On Saturday another visitor to the farm alerted staff to a man wearing a T-shirt bearing the message, "If you are gay, don't approch [sic] me I'll kill you."

Tammy Dopson said Capital Pride considers the message to be a form of hate speech.

"It's shocking because you think we've made so much progress, especially in Canada, and then you see this," said Dopson.

"It's a chargeable offence. And we hope at some point that that's recognized as such and charges are laid. This is not tolerable particularly in this day and age with so many progresses in Canada, progress on human rights. And yet there is this young, defiant group that has come about and has said we will kill gays if they get near us. It doesn't get any worse than that."

The woman who reported the incident, Whitney Martin, circulated a photo of the man on social media.

A Facebook post from Buckingham, Que., shows a group of four young men wearing similar T-shirts.

Concerned about impact on youth

The coordinator of Jeunesse Idem, a Gatineau organization that works with youth and young adults in the LGBT community, called the incident "scary."

Openly gay country singer Drake Jensen agreed the anti-gay message on the shirt is unacceptable. (Robyn Miller/CBC) Érik Bisson said he's worried the message will prevent young people who are struggling with their sexuality from expressing how they feel.

"I think that people are going to be a little bit more afraid of going out, maybe at night," said Bisson. "They will be a little bit more careful about what they do, where they do it."

Drake Jensen took a more optimistic view. The openly gay country singer said the message on the shirt is unacceptable, but said he's confident most people know better.

"We have a very strong community here in Ottawa so it's going to be really, really interesting to see what will happen. There's a lot of positive things that will come out of this, a lot of awareness, I think."

Ottawa police confirmed they're investigating, but provided no further comment.

Gatineau police said they've also been made aware of the group, but haven't had any incidents reported in their jurisdiction.

"But for sure if there is a complaint about this group in particular we will take it as a priority, and we will investigate," said Gatineau police spokeswoman Andrée East.

Late Wednesday afternoon the man who was wearing the T-shirt did an interview with CBC.

He apologized for the message written on the shirt and said it was inappropriate.