When Harry Met Sally Debate

[HBADPi]

What do y'all think can girls and guys be friends without the sex issue getting in the way?

For the longest time I thought that I could be friends with guys no problem and came to think of some of my closest guy friends as brothers. Now I dont know if its the guys that I befriend that are like this but I've had this happen 3 times now that a guy I was friends with (that I had no romantic interest in) has mentioned he would like to take our relationship further. I dont think that I give them any reason to think that I'm interested and it always ends up being a difficult situation where our friendship is jeopardized because I dont feel the same way.

Most recently a guy that I met 6 months ago when I moved out west called me up to ask me out on a "belated valentines day" date and when I told him I had family stuff to do that weekend(which was not a lie) he gets all mad that I would blow him off to spend time with my family (the nerve!). He then goes off on this tyrannt asking why I dont like him, what can he do to make me like him and to make me date him, starts talking about how his family is loaded and he could give me anything...really laying on the guilt trip. When I finally was able to get off the phone with him he asks me to call him back and promise that I wont break his heart. Although this was a pretty extreme case, I still feel bad when I have to say no and risk the chance of losing a friend.

Any advice? Thoughts?