Transgender D’Iberville grad’s speech goes viral after school alters JROTC photo

A Mississippi Coast teenager stayed out of the limelight last week as controversy swirled after his high school posted a doctored image of him that attempted to remove his mustache.

But Jonas Hole, a D’Iberville High graduate who identifies as transgender and uses he/him pronouns, broke his silence over the weekend in his commencement speech to the graduating class of 2026.

Hole, the school’s salutatorian, was deadnamed by the school multiple times leading up to Saturday’s graduation inside the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. Deadnaming is when a transgender person is referred to by the name they were given at birth, but no longer use.

D’Iberville High posted a photo of the 18-year-old last week announcing him as salutatorian. The school deadnamed and misgendered Hole in the Facebook post and shared a photo of him in his JROTC uniform. Commenters swiftly noticed the school attempted to remove Hole’s mustache with a photo editing tool, but was unsuccessful.

The post went viral, with LGBTQ+ advocates, drag queens, parents, students and Gulf Coast residents criticizing the school for doctoring the photo. The story was first reported by The Advocate and other LGBTQ+ publications and social media sites.

Then, just before he was called to address his classmates, the school’s principal praised Hole and his accomplishments at D’Iberville High while using she/her pronouns, Mississippi Today reported. The school district, which has faced controversy for treatment of transgender students in the past, has a new dress code policy that says all students must dress as their sex assigned at birth.

In his speech, Hole addressed those who were critical of him and explained how his own journey to identifying as transmasculine led to happiness and peace.

“I hold no grudge against those who were so quick to criticize me, because I know it’s not the desired feeling,” he said. “We as people tend to groove others into boxes, and our feelings reflect that bias, even if we don’t realize it.”

He ended by asking his community to live their lives with authenticity, the same authenticity he has found as Jonas.

“Be yourself, no matter who tries to stop you from doing so,” Hole said.

Hole’s speech, recorded by many graduation attendees and posted to various social media sites, has now gone viral and received mostly positive support.