I've seen the arguments around this, and they're far from unanimous. Most of it's down to interpolation and spin, as it's often the case with Hadiths. Needless to say, there are mixed opinions on this, like a lot of other issues, and philosophical firestorm. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

Regardless, you should probably choose someone whose more familiar with your ideology, to avoid such ideological clashes in the future.

" friendship between opposite sexes can lead to fitnah and should be avoided "
I think the probability of you committing fitnah is much higher, from your mere presence in Redditt, than having friends who have different genitalia to you. But maybe we live in different realities.