Quite a few of my closest friends are women, some from university days and some from after. In my late teens and 20s, I used to find female friends easier to talk to about "emotional stuff".
The three in whom I confide the most these days, though, are male - I've known them all for around 15-20 years and know they are on my wavelength.
Just wondered if that was common? Anyone find the fancying/not fancying thing gets in the way? (DW isn't the jealous sort, luckily.) For some people it is a total no-no - DW's brother, for example, would never have a friend who was female - it would just seem odd in the circles he moves in, and everyone would assume that they were doing the dirty. DW says his wife would never "allow" him to have a woman friend!
It's odd, but most of my other male friends are known in "isolation" from each other: if I go out for a beer with another bloke it'll usually be just the two of us, whereas a larger group will inevitably be mixed.