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Tarell Alvin McCraney Awarded $150,000 from Yale University

This is absolutely brilliant. The Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney has become one of the first winners of Yale University's new Windham Campbell Prize, reports the Yale Alumni Magazine. It's accompanied by a hefty cash tag.

Calling it "one of the largest literary prizes in the world," the university this morning announced nine writers who will receive $150,000 each "for outstanding achievement in fiction, nonfiction and drama." The prize, totaling $1.35 million this year, was established in 2011 and is named for the late author Donald Windham and his partner, Sandy M. Campbell. This year's winners will receive their prizes at Yale in September, in conjunction with a literary festival.

The 33-year-old McCraney, who is gay, has sometimes been described as the "heir" to August Wilson's legacy. McCraney is a Miami native and graduated from Yale '07 MFA. The wunderkind dramatist has had a very busy year, reports Miami's New Times.

The Miami native playwright kicked off 2013 with his own punched-up, truncated version of Hamlet, which opened at GableStage in January to favorable reviews (including ours). Next, he's working with London's Royal Shakespeare Company and the New York Public Theatre to produce another major production at GableStage in 2014.

McCraney's is best known for his acclaimed trilogy The Brother/Sister Plays. Other works include Wig Out!, American Trade and Choir Boy. The latter made its London debut in September 2012 and explores the competing roles of religion, Black cultural identity and sexual repression at a fictional African-American prep school.

Get it Tarell!

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Lesbian Veteran Sues Govt Over VA Benefits, Defense of Marriage Act

PHOTO: New York Times

In what has been described as the "first case of its kind", a disabled lesbian Navy veteran has filed suit to challenge the constitutionality of the federal law that defines marriage as between a man and woman. Carmen Cardona legally married her wife in Connecticut and says the Dept. of Veterans Affairs denied her benefits, reports the New York Times.

But when she applied for an increase in her monthly disability compensation because she was newly married, the Department of Veterans Affairs regional office in Hartford rejected her application, citing a federal statute that defines a spouse as “a person of the opposite sex.”

In a case to be filed before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, a special federal court in Washington that handles disputes over veterans benefits, [attorneys] will argue that the government’s definition violates her Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawyers intend to file their notice to appeal on Thursday. The legal team ... says it will also challenge the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

Experts said this would be the first time a plaintiff had tried to use the veterans court of appeals to attack the law. ... Advocates for gay rights say they also anticipate lawsuits challenging the federal definition of marriage to be filed by active-duty troops in same-sex marriages who have been denied benefits granted to heterosexual married couples, like military health care [and] housing.

Cardona is being represented by Yale Law School's Veterans Legal Services Clinic.

The Obama Administration announced in February that it will NOT defend recent lawsuits challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition and benefits to same-sex couples. If the government chooses not to defend the case, there is still the possibility that counsel hired by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to defend DOMA's constitutionality will take the case.

"And even if no government lawyer defends the laws, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims could still rule against Ms. Cardona. The court consists mainly of judges—most of them former military officers — appointed by President George W. Bush."

Only two weeks ago, President Obama reiterated his opposition to DOMA, saying that he believed the courts will address the law "fairly soon" but couldn't predicting a ruling.