I wonder if we can learn something from homosexual people in this. I don't often see gay guys cutting off their straight friendships because they're one-sidedly attracted for example in the same way straight men swear off any woman.
I think the crux there is that there isn't the potential mutual attraction.
For me, it would be much harder to develop feelings if I knew that there couldn't be attraction.
For a straight man it is probably just as easy being friends with a gay woman as it is a straight man, because in both cases there won't be mutual attraction. Conversely as a gay male it would be easy being friends with straight women or straight men -- I think that's where you see the stereotype of gay men with many friends who are straight women.
Well that's the thing, I don't generally see lesbians claiming they can have no lesbian friends, or gay people claiming they can have no gay friends, either. They seem to be able to be more emotionally mature about managing their attraction such that they don't need to cut themselves off from their attracted gender like some kind of addict.
