The main point the author hopes to impart in this article is how essential it is for educators to create an environment in classrooms where they and their students are comfortable talking about issues of gender. In order for this to happen, it is important to weave concepts of gender into the curricula and refrain from a tokenizing approach that isolates gender as a "one day" or "one week" topic. Educators must do whatever they can, regardless of their personal identities, although they also bear the responsibility of considering how their personal identities shape their pedagogy and their classroom environments. Role models are important--both those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and/or questioning (LGBTQ), and also non-LGBTQ teachers who model that these issues matter to all. It takes a lot of work for teachers to create spaces that are LGBTQ-friendly, physically and intellectually safe, and encouraging of dialogue about difficult topics. But fostering this kind of environment in the classrooms is sometimes a matter of life or death. In this article, the author describes how he makes his classroom safe for broad discussions of gender identity and explains why an anti-bullying curriculum is not enough. (Contains 2 resources.)