Same-sex marriage is part of a global civil rights struggle for LGBQ rights. How this movement is framed, advanced, and critiqued across the globe can be linked to how young people in schools are prepared to deliberate social issues in the political sphere. This article examines national history books as cultural artifacts that present what is possible and reasonable in the struggle for LGBQ rights. It examines how LGBQ rights are defined, situated, and understood within past social justice movements included in the texts. Insight into the narrative for rights in the U.S. is provided through comparison to Canada where LGBQ persons have great political protection and visibility. The comparison illuminates that integrating historical thinking and inquiry into textbooks and placing the struggle for rights within the national narrative may help U.S. teachers give reason and a social justice focus to sexuality inequity.