Thank you so much for your thoughts, Islandgirl17! I agree that my other friends/family are caught up in the stereotype that straight men and women can’t just be friends. My husband knows my friend. My other family members and friends really don’t, but that’s mostly because everyone in my life is scattered all over the country, so we don’t have too many get-togethers at my house. I like your idea, though, of just being more open about it. I feel like I let other opinions get to me, so I’ve kept it pretty private so I don’t have to deal with the judgmental comments. But I think it would help me if I worked on disregarding them and being more open about the friendship, like you said.