The first onstage lesbian kiss in the United States took place at the Apollo Theater in 1923 in the play God of Vengeance by Polish-born Jewish playwright Sholem Asch. Obscene, indecent, and immoral were words New York theater-goers used to describe the production. So incensed were the “moral” authorities of the time that the entire cast and the producer were arrested and convicted for indecency. This over a story that the playwright called “a little Jewish play,” one that had been staged in countries throughout Europe for a decade without incident.
