(Travis Mayfield was a longtime Seattle TV news anchor. He is currently a contributor at KIRO Newsradio. Travis, his husband and their kids live in Seattle. You can find him on Instagram @TravisMayfield, Twitter @TravisMayfield and on Facebook @TravisMayfieldTV.)

Pride has always been a radical political protest demanding equality, equity and full inclusion for those of us with different gender and sexual identities.

It has also always been about having a damn good time.

With that spirit in mind, I was disappointed to read that the Seattle Pride organization has asked uniformed police officers not to march in the annual parade on Sunday.

I’m a queer man and I am also the son of a retired police officer.

I understand why many in the LGBTQAI+ community feel targeted by police. After all, Pride is a product of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City, which was sparked after police raided a gay nightclub and brave patrons fought back.

I also understand why LGBTQAI+ police officers who have been welcomed in uniform in the Pride parade for three decades suddenly feel othered by their own community.

The harm is done. There is blame on all sides. At some point we must choose to start fixing things.

What our world doesn’t need more of is unproductive anger. Especially since Pride can give us all so much more. There’s enough unmitigated anger hurled back and forth online, in the media and even face-to-face.

Yes, anger can spark movements for change – like Stonewall and Black Lives Matter. Yet progress demands that we push past anger alone.

At a time when our community needs as many people as possible to hear us, see us and know us, we are ourselves refusing to hear, see and know others.

That must stop.

We won’t solve systemic racism, bigoty or bias until we choose to look each other in the eyes and begin to acknowledge the other is human too.

The LGBTQAI+ community has been harmed for years at the hands of police. Communities of color have been harmed for years at the hands of police. There’s a throughline that connects it all and necessitates strong allyship. But we can hold space for all of it – even the anger – while still choosing to look officers in the eye and believe them when they say they are working to change and authentically asking to do it with our help.

That will make some of us deeply uncomfortable. It should make us uncomfortable. It is that discomfort that can help us bury the old ways and build something new.

It doesn’t happen overnight. It won't happen overnight. There is so much more work to do. So why take even one step backward? Even if that step feels righteous in the moment.

Bygones don’t have to be bygones, but progress means acknowledging past harm and working toward something better.

Be angry.

But be brave too.

Have a damn good time.

But take Pride in doing the work together. Imagine where that kind of Pride will lead us next.