Every month during our 10-year celebration, we revisit an individual we interviewed or who played a significant role in the issue published a decade ago.

CHECK UP: DR. JACKIE DOVAL

Over a decade, she builds a family, her practice, and her body

By Thomas Blanton

Photo by Gavyn Aaron

Dr. Jackie Doval is not your typical lesbian bodybuilder animal chiropractor.

Doval is a community advocate—president of the Lesbian Health Initiative for a decade—as well as a medical professional and an athlete. She first strove for athletic glory in the sixth annual Gay Games, where she competed in cycling—for which she was featured in the May 1994 OutSmart. Over the past 10 years, she has managed to add still more titles to her growing list of achievements.

While Doval didn’t take home the gold, silver, or bronze at Gay Games VI (“I was a ‘medalled participant,’” she quips), she has earned quite a bit of recognition in the field of competitive bodybuilding. She has placed in several novice lightweight competitions, even snagging a second-place trophy on her 40th birthday. “I haven’t made it to the opens yet,” she admits, “but then, I’m still a baby.”

When not working to sculpt her own body, Doval makes a living by working out the kinks in the bodies of her clients, most notably of the four-legged and hoofed variety in addition to “people who don’t bite or kick.” In fact, Doval is the first chiropractor in Texas certified to work with animals by the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association. As she does with her human patients, Doval strives to put animal patients at ease. “When they come into my office, they know they’re not at the vet’s,” she says. “If their owners aren’t jumpy, then the animals won’t be, either.”

Chiropractic medicine has always been somewhat controversial in some quarters, but Doval can easily silence most critics of her chosen profession. “There’s no placebo for animals,” she explains. “If an animal comes in limping, and leaves not limping, then that’s good evidence.”

In addition to her success in the fields of athletics and medicine, Doval has achieved recognition from her community as well. On top of her work with the Lesbian Health Initiative, she was a grand marshal of the 1998 GLBT Pride Parade, and she served as a parade judge the following year. As well-rounded as she is as an individual, however, her life became even fuller with the birth of her son, Mario.

In 1999, Doval’s partner, Mina Garcia, was diagnosed with breast cancer. After winning her battle with the disease, she and Doval were ready to start a family. The close relationship they had developed with Garcia’s oncologist grew even stronger when he agreed to be their sperm donor. “He saved her life, and gave us more life,” Doval says. “Mario was really loved even before he was conceived.”

After Doval gave birth to Mario, Garcia legally adopted him through the efforts of attorneys Connie Moore and Deborah Hunt (the subjects of the “Check Up” feature in our March issue). “Mario legally has two mommies,” Doval says, pointing out that she and her partner, while not a traditional family unit in the right-wing Republican sense of the word, have created a loving, safe, and healthy environment for their son, who will turn four this month. “Everyone talks about how happy he is,” she says.

Currently, Doval is pursuing more bodybuilding titles while building her chiropractic practice, Alternative Health & Wellness Center, located in Montrose, and spending time with her family. She takes her numerous accomplishments and accolades in stride, and even manages to understate her successes while acknowledging them.

“My life is pretty cool,” she says.

Thomas Blanton interviewed attorney Connie Moore in our March issue.

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