Tiktok Seafairy: A Glimpse to the Life of Andy Flores
- museomaritimo
- Aug 30, 2025
- 2 min read
August 30, 2025 — Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines
An Article by Errold John Lim
To fully accept yourself is a challenge but to participate in a male dominated field is a feat.
Raising the rainbow flag in the vasts of the sea is Andy Flores, a Filipino gay content creator featuring his life as an international merchant navy officer in a well known shipping company. With approximately 1.4 million followers on Facebook and Twitter combined, he captures the heart of the people especially members of the LGBTQ+ community who aspires to work in the maritime industry.
Growing up as an only boy in 4 siblings, Andy has a huge responsibility. He grew up having a hard time navigating his gender identity because of external pressures. His strict father would always scold him for being too “effeminate”.
One day, to make his father proud, he decided to explore and enter a relationship with a woman. However, this did not make him a “real man”.
In his college, he took up Marine Transportation with hopes of giving his family a good future. His parents work as farmers in Tacloban.
Eventually, he became an intern in a Danish shipping company, Maersk, where he did manual tasks such as mopping the floor and brushing the toilet. This became his starting point to slowly build himself.
After graduating, he was immediately absorbed as a third mate. Fortunately, the company values inclusivity so he was relieved when he came out on board as gay.
The work in the company is not an easy task given the fact that he has to work with different nationalities. In addition to that, he had to make huge adjustments because it is a male dominated field. Ultimately, he has to show exemplary performance to upgrade his position in the company.
After 5 years of hard work, determination and perseverance, he was promoted as a second officer responsible for ship navigation, navigational equipment and publications.
In 2021, he started to create content, detailing his life at sea. Many people became inspired by his content, the reason why his followers gradually grew in number.
Today, he has almost 700 thousand followers on tiktok alone and it continues to increase. He also got featured on different vlogs and online articles.
It was truly a rough sail for the seafairy but through his determination, courage and perseverance he was able to color the vastness of the seas and illuminate hope for other aspiring sailors who belong to the rainbow community.
References:
Eugenio, A. (2022). TikTok’s “Seafairy” Raises the Queer Flag in a Seaman’s World. SPOT.PH.https://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/culture/96012/who-is-andy-ef-tiktok-seafairy-seaman-queer-lgbt-a4713-20220210-lfrm
Villaluna, N. S. (2024, May 27). Filipino gay seafarer Andy Flores comes out onboard. TheFilipinoExpat. https://www.thefilipinoexpat.com/andy-flores-gay-filipino-seafarer
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