I have a gripe

I've just finished reading 'The Story of the Night' by Colm Toibin. To begin with I was very pleased to be reading a 'gay' novel (which to me means a novel featuring gay characters in prominent roles). I was pleased that (like most novels) the sex was essential to the plot in the sense that this is what motivates a lot of people in forming and unforming relationships - socially and in business. The fact that some of the sex was same sex and some opposite sex was incidental. The central theme was an English family in Buenos Aires at the time of the Malvinas/Falklands War, and although the central character was gay it was really a description of anyone dealing with a time of political upheaval and how politics and business manipulate and operate. I was really enjoying it because this is a period I know a lot about from a British perspective - but know very little about the situation in Argentina. I just had this nagging worry that it was going to turn into the kind of gay novel I'm beginning to despair about.
Then it happened. Two friends turn up from San Francisco and one is dying of AIDS. The central character's lover announces his previous boyfriend had died of AIDS. We have graphic descriptions of HIV, AIDS, testing, symptoms and results. Then both these characters are diagnosed with AIDS and rapidly rushing towards death.
Now I know how important AIDS is to the lives of gay men - and we've all known friends or acquaintances that have died as a result of AIDS. BUT there are too many novelists who almost use AIDS as a kind of punishment for the fun times their characters have experienced before. It begins to appear that there is cause and effect. In the early chapters the gay characters meet have have sex with one or more men, and then bang PUNISHMENT - you've had a good time so now here is the lesson - you are going to die for being so happy and so very very bad. Give me a novelist who can write a book featuring characters who have normal happy relationships (interspersed of course by times that are not so good) but they just happen to be gay. This would be the final confirmation of true gay liberation!