Transgender students across the country should have access to bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with the gender they identify with, regardless of their birth gender, the Obama administration said Friday.

California is already on board. In 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the first law of its kind in the nation, ensuring transgender youth in California can use bathrooms and participate on sports teams with the gender they identify with.

“California’s law is almost like a template” for the administration’s directive, said Laura Kanter, policy, advocacy and youth programs director at the LGBT Center OC in Santa Ana. “I’m really excited these guidelines were issued, saying you can’t discriminate against someone based on their gender identity.”

The state law and Obama’s new national directive affect students such as Chloe Anderson, a Santa Ana College volleyball player who was born a boy but identifies as female.

“I change in the handicap bathroom stall of the women’s locker room. I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable on the team,” said Anderson, who came out as transgender to her family after graduating from Irvine High School.

In college, it was her coach who, with her permission, shared her trans status with teammates during a team meeting two years ago.

“I wasn’t sure how they felt at first,” Anderson said, “but everyone proved to be fairly supportive. My teammates are extremely open.”

Next fall, Anderson will transfer to UC Santa Cruz to study history and play volleyball there.

The U.S. Department of Education issued a letter Friday saying it is not adding legal requirements, but providing guidance on how to comply with Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding

“We must ensure that our young people know that whoever they are or wherever they come from, they have the opportunity to get a great education in an environment free from discrimination, harassment and violence,” Education Secretary John B. King said in a statement.

Politicians in Texas, Arkansas and elsewhere vowed defiance – and other conservative states could follow suit.

“This is the most outrageous example yet of the Obama administration forcing its liberal agenda on states that roundly reject it,” said Mississippi Republican Gov. Phil Bryant.

Texas’ lieutenant governor said the state is prepared to forfeit billions of dollars rather than let the Obama administration dictate restroom policy for its 5.2 million students.

“We will not be blackmailed by the president’s 30 pieces of silver,” Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said.

The guidance issued on Friday is not legally binding, since the question of whether federal civil rights law protects transgender people has not been definitively answered by the courts and may ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. But schools that refuse to comply could be hit with civil rights lawsuits from the government and could face a cutoff of federal aid to education.

The federal government issued the guidelines in the midst of a feud with North Carolina. The Justice Department and North Carolina filed dueling lawsuits over a new state law that says transgender people must use public bathrooms, showers and changing rooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate.

In California, the law that became effective in 2014 was and continues to be controversial. A referendum to repeal the law failed to collect enough valid signatures.

Orange County Board of Education President Robert Hammond has previously said that boys could put on skirts and head to the girls’ locker room. The law doesn’t allow school staff to “worry about protecting the privacy of young ladies,” Hammond told Newport Mesa Tea Party members in 2013.

Susi Khan, a Yorba Linda resident who regularly addresses the county education board, said that California’s law and now the administration’s directive create confusion among younger children and teens. “I don’t think we need to have anything but boys and girls bathrooms in the public schools,” Khan said.

David Whitley, an Irvine resident who has three children in the Irvine Unified School District, said the majority is being inconvenienced by a small minority. “Laws like this, we believe, violate the sanctity of our children’s emotional well-being and safety in the environment of locker rooms, showers and bathroom facilities,” he said.

Several educators contacted Friday said they want to create a welcoming climate for all students.

“We are strong advocates for all of our students and for the development of their character. Further, we believe that the most pronounced manifestation of character is how we treat and accept others. …” Al Mijares, Orange County superintendent of schools, said in a statement.

Sherine Smith, superintendent of the Laguna Beach Unified School District, said in her progressive community, it’s a non-issue. And in other school districts, even when parents may have some concerns, she said: “Students are far more enlightened, tolerant of diversity than many adults.”

It’s unclear how many transgender students are in Orange County.

Laguna Beach High School Principal Chris Herzfeld said he is aware of at least one each at Laguna Beach High and at Fountain Valley High School, where he was last principal, in the last five years.

“In either setting, I have not experienced a complaint from the student, another student, a staff member, a community member or the student’s parents,” Herzfeld said.

At Valley High School in Santa Ana, Vladimir Herrera, 18, turned to his fellow students last year in each of his classes.

With his classmates gathered in a circle, he talked to them about the bullying he would endure, the depression that gnawed at him. He then came out to them as a transgender student.

“Ever since then, everything changed,” Herrera said.

Bullies apologized. Strangers became friends. As for his use of the boys’ bathroom, he was once stopped by a school employee and asked for his identification. Herrera responded: “You know, what you’re doing is illegal.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: rkopetman@ocregister.com and Twitter@RoxanaKopetman