That would be moi. I DO know that there are females on the internet. However, it's safer to be cautious, because there ARE guys who will pretend to be females (IRL). I have seen many guys burned by this.
So when I say, 'I will consider you a guy', I mean 'I will never EVER flirt in any way what so ever with anyone on the internet until it is confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the person is 'in fact' a female'.
The answer to your question is, 'no it does not matter who is behind the keys' (as long as you're not trying to get all flirty). When it comes to friendships, I don't care if you are a guy or a girl. When it comes to RP, I don't care either. In fact......I am comfortable sharing this little tidbit with you folks (since we're in the circle of trust right?). My character in FFXI (RP wise) had a relationship with a mithra who was played by a guy. Our characters ended up getting married and even having a baby. No, we never RP'd anything sexually detailed (even if you are a female, I leave that stuff out because there is no need for it. It's much more appropriate to just 'fade to black') When we spoke online in OOC, we were just two friends who were guys and we wouldn't even really talk about our characters at all. When IC, it was all different. In fact, I wouldn't mind RP'ing a female (if I didn't have such an attachment to my 'Brin' character)