The first kiss "filmed" is used here guardedly — it's a close sequence of photographs detailing a kiss between two nude women, shot by Eadweard Muybridge (the guy who did the similar horse-at-a-gallop sequence), which can be put together into an "auto-Awesome" style animated picture.
Interestingly, the series of photos of two nude women kissing was okay in the late 19th Century, because it was art, or science, or something like that.
This was the first kiss ever filmed—and it was between two women
The Internet is currently ablaze over a video of strangers having a first kiss, but what was likely the first kiss committed to film was between two models—two female models. Oddly, the photographer filmed a same-sex kiss because, not in spite of, mores of the era. Artful nudity below.
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I remember reading once that when Queen Victoria was presented with an anti-homosexuality bill, she crossed out all references to women (presumably because lesbians didn't exist). Need to confirm this.
+John E. Bredehoft I had read the same thing somewhere.
+John E. Bredehoft Yes. I've heard a mixture of stories, from her simply disbelieving that such a thing existed, to the idea that lesbians are less of a threat to society / manhood / order / the nation than gay men (and need only get married off to set them straight, so to speak).
For the era, though, there was an acceptance of nudity within certain defined bounds. Art was one of them — as the Pre-Raphaelites showed, all you needed to do to get away with female nudity was drape it in antiquity — Greek myths, Romanesque settings, Biblical tales. Or, in this case, artistic/technological exploration.