Storing an enum value in an MVC model

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VB

MVC3

I have an MVC model,

Imports System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations

Public Class Person
    <key>
    Public Property Id as integer
    Public Property Sex as Gender
End Class

</key>

Unfortunately this does not store the Sex property into the db when the framework creates it. It contains only the id key field.
As a workaround, I thought this would be a good solution

Imports System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations
Public Class Person
    <key>
    Public Property Id as integer

    <notmapped>
    Private Property sSex as Gender

    Public Property Sex as integer
    Get
        Return sSex
    End Get
    Set(value as integer)
        sSex = value
    End Set

End Class
</notmapped></key>

Unfortunately this ruins the whole structure of the class itself, as I'd like to use the Sex as a gender rather than as an integer. Is there anyway to force MVC3 to store the Enum value as integer automatically?