AACC faculty and students celebrated diversity and inclusion Thursday during the Coming Out Fair.

The fair served to commemorate LGBT pride and diversity, according to Dr. Richard Otten, the fair organizer.

Otten, an adjunct instructor, said the fair is meant “to promote diversity and inclusion of LGBT+ issues and education to bring people from different aspects of the college together.”

Otten said the fair coincides with Coming Out Week, an event featuring activities held by numerous organizations on campus.

The fair included stands from the AACC Rainbow Network, Truxal Library, the campus health department, and Annapolis Pride, according to Otten.

Third-year film art student James Young said the fair brought value to the college.

“They got a lot of stuff there, they got a lot of people, they’re all going out, doing their thing,” Young said.

Second-year computer science student Nathan Boles said the fair highlighted inclusiveness on campus.

“Everyone wants to be included,” Boles said. “It’s part of why we’re here. we all want to be included in society, we all want to contribute, we all want to show what we can do.”

Speaking on pride, Otten said it celebrates “the diversity of life.”

Pride is “about people being able to be themselves,” Otten said. “[It’s] about the constant progress of not just acknowledging that some people are gay, but of promoting non-binary thinking, of how artificial binaries tend to limit our human expression and … being proud to not be normal, or conversely that normal is a broad spectrum.”