At two other occasions, though, he said he could see that some relatives were ashamed: “That they would have preferred to deal with this privately and that nobody had to know that their son or daughter was gay. I can see it and I can feel it. And I just want to hug them and hold them and tell them that there is nothing wrong with this.”

On Tuesday, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch visited some of the people injured in the attack and the relatives of some who were slain. She spoke of those who might choose to hide their sexuality out of fear of such violence in the future.

“Let me say to our L.G.B.T. friends and family, particularly to anyone who might view this tragedy as an indication that their identities — their essential selves — might somehow be better left unexpressed or in the shadows: This Department of Justice — and your country — stands with you in the light,” she said.

Cory Richards, 24, spent the early hours of June 12 dancing under the strobe lights at Pulse with his boyfriend, Enrique L. Rios Jr. Neither man had told his parents he was gay. But around 9 a.m., as Mr. Richards emerged from the carnage, he cried into his phone to his father.

“I can’t find my baby,” Mr. Richards recalled saying. “I can’t find my baby.”

“What?” his father responded.

“That’s my boyfriend, that’s not my friend,” Mr. Richards said he told him of Mr. Rios. “That’s my boyfriend.”

“I don’t care what you are,” he recalled his father saying. “You’re my son. I didn’t know, but I accept it.”