Is it normal that my gay friend who confessed to loving me cant get an erection

I have been best friends with this guy for almost a year now. We knew each other in high school but we have become best friends since being in nursing school together (32 hours a week with the same people = getting to know each other). He wasnt openly gay in high school but he's someone you always wondered about. Well soon after we started school he made very known he was gay. After 7 months of school he met a guy and things became serious pretty quickly and I found myself jealous which obviously made me realize i have feelings for him. They recently broke up (3 months later) and we went out the other night with a few friends and after a couple drinks we had both told the same friend of our feelings for each other. Before we knew it we were confessing our love for each other and he said he always knew he loved me but he was just confused. What i am wanting to know is what do i do? that night i spent the night with him and we tried to mess around and he couldn't get "up." I am comfortable enough to say anything to him so i was like WTF "John" and he said i'm so sorry i was afraid this would happen..... Since being sober and talking about all that had happened he said that he isn't confused of his sexuality, he knows what he wants, he wants to be with me.. but he cant get his "manhood" to agree. Is that normal? What should I say to him? I know we have something special but I want a family and I think we are in trouble if he cant fix his downstairs problem!!!!