Ok to save everyone some time it is a bug. I did some QA work on it and the bug is fixed in 2014. Not sure about 2013 due to the fact I don't have access to that version.

But you don't have to go throught the whole process. In 2012 Maya doesn't like the output value of the luminace node being place into the cutout opacity of the mia shader.

You may have to settle for using just a tif in the cutout opacity.
It will render without crashing. I believe it does work in 2009.

Autodesk implemented QT in Maya 2011 so this may have been missed since it is a bit obscure for the QA to find this