diff --git a/gunicorn/http/wsgi.py b/gunicorn/http/wsgi.py
index 32e7a2ac..3524471f 100644
--- a/gunicorn/http/wsgi.py
+++ b/gunicorn/http/wsgi.py
@@ -253,10 +253,13 @@ class Response(object):
             if HEADER_RE.search(name):
                 raise InvalidHeaderName('%r' % name)
 
+            if not isinstance(value, str):
+                raise TypeError('%r is not a string' % value)
+
             if HEADER_VALUE_RE.search(value):
                 raise InvalidHeader('%r' % value)
 
-            value = str(value).strip()
+            value = value.strip()
             lname = name.lower().strip()
             if lname == "content-length":
                 self.response_length = int(value)