EL Resolver throws InvocationTargetException (char-long conversation)

[burghard.britzke]

with tomcat 7.0.27, primefaces 3.3, myfaces 2.1.17, weld 1.1.8

for the jsf-source
Line 56: <h:graphicImage 
Line 57:    value="/images/#{personenBean.aktuellePerson.geschlecht eq 'w' ? 
'fe':''}male.png">
Line 58: </h:graphicImage>

and the bean
public class Person implements Serializable {
        @Column(name = "\"geschlecht\"", nullable = false, length = 1)
        private char geschlecht;
...

an Exception is thrown

java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
Caused by:<br/>javax.el.ELException - Cannot convert w of type class 
java.lang.String to class java.lang.Long
at org.apache.el.lang.ELSupport.coerceToNumber(ELSupport.java:304)
personen.xhtml at line 57 and column 92    
value="/images/#{personenBean.aktuellePerson.geschlecht eq 'w' ? 
'fe':''}male.png"

At MyFaces Discussion <us...@myfaces.apache.org> they told me this would 
probably be an issue with tomcat so I downgraded to Tomcat 7.0.25 and the error 
disappeared.
What are the next steps to get rid of this exception with Tomacat 7.0.27?

burghard.