Regarding plagiarism: all I will say is that is a very inapt analogy. Regarding empathy: that's a tough thing to say, but it's sincere advice to the OP. By knowing a colleague who was falsely accused of sexual harassment, he has experienced a very low probability event that has unfortunately skewed his perspective and empathy. As he admits, this has made him look at female students as potential career ruiners.

If he maintains this perspective and relates to students in this way, it is likely that some will pick up on his discomfort and fear in an unhelpful way. But if he empathizes with them they will pick up on that. The exceedingly rare mentally unbalanced individual who considers doing him harm will probably pick up that he is not an easy target and look elsewhere. This is practical advice!

Let me finally say: do I think the OP is a bad teacher, a bad person, a likely sexual harasser? No on all counts. His question is a reasonable and important one; I would not have answered it at length otherwise. On the other hand, some of the things he said are not going to thrill some of his colleagues. The business about not being able to imagine male on male sexual harassment may be honest, but it is not going to be well received.

Political correctness is a reality of modern academia. As for me, as a person I am quite liberal; as an academic, still liberal but there are massive mountains to the left of me. Being anonymous on the internet is a good, safe way to get a taste of what people will say, and the OP has clearly gotten that. Good.

@PeteL.Clark "Regarding plagiarism: all I will say is that is a very inapt analogy." Strange you would say so. To be honest, I'm not seeing any aspect of the analogy that is not apt: we have unethical and unprofessional conduct (sexual harassing somebody/plagiarizing them). We have a low-probability but professionally devastating possibility of being falsely accused of that conduct. And a reasonable desire to learn best practices for avoiding such false accusations.

@PeteL.Clark That is a very thoughtful and reasoned response. I'm not completely sure I agree about "not an easy target," though; I'd think the hardest targets are those that keep maximal professional distance, with empathy exploitable as a vulnerability (NB that's not necessarily a good enough reason to eschew empathy.)

theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/…

theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/09/…

I can see the point of the OP being paranoid in the current cultural climate seen on many campuses today (see articles). It does not necessarily have to be sexual in nature either, but any accusation of emotional distress made to university administrators is, in many cases, a complete deployment of extensive actions based on policies in favor of the accuser, regardless of the evidence or veracity of claims.

This is diametric to the the United States' rule of law because many university campus policies (for better and for worse) fall roundly and completely in favor of the victim/accuser.