Trumpeted as the first lesbian kiss in daytime TV, yesterday's episode of ABC's "All My Children" ended with Bianca (Eden Riegel), the teen daughter of Susan Lucci's Erica Kane, chasing down a fleeing Lena (Olga Sosnovska) at the airport and demanding to know why Lena was leaving without saying goodbye.

Lena didn't tell her she'd been ordered by the nefarious Michael to seduce Bianca to get access to a secret anti-aging formula, and was leaving the country because she loved Bianca too much to do that and betray her.

Instead, as an airplane engine warmed up in the background, Lena spent the last few seconds rushing to Bianca, embracing her and giving her a passionate, on-the-lips kiss.

It wasn't exactly "Casablanca." It was neither convincing nor sexy. But there it was, for the record: daytime TV's first lesbian kiss.

Prime-time television was way ahead in this particular contest. Not only did the heroine of "Ellen" come out in an airport, accidentally proclaiming over a loudspeaker that she was gay, but same-sex female kissing drew headlines as far back as 1991, when characters played by Amanda Donohoe and Michele Greene smooched on "L.A. Law."

But for Bianca, who announced her sexual orientation on the show three years ago, it was a kiss that had been denied for a long time.

"Every time I meet someone that I think I share a connection with," she complained yesterday during a flashback sequence, "that someone changes their mind."

Yesterday, Lena changed her mind - and decided to be honest with her true feelings for the younger Bianca.

Just in time, too - not only because the plane was about to leave, but because the May ratings sweeps start today, and viewers are bound to tune in to see what happens next.