  Using photometric variability information from the new Gaia DR3 release, I
show for the first time that photometric variability is inversely correlated
with the prevalence of optical-radio position offsets in the active galactic
nuclei (AGNs) that comprise the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF).
While the overall prevalence of statistically significant optical-radio
position offsets is $11\%$, objects with the largest fractional variabilities
exhibit an offset prevalence of only $\sim2\%$. These highly variable objects
have redder optical color and steeper optical spectral indices indicative of
blazars, in which the optical and radio emission is dominated by a
line-of-sight jet, and indeed nearly $\sim100\%$ of the most variable objects
have $\gamma$-ray emission detected by Fermi LAT. This result is consistent
with selection on variability preferentially picking jets pointed closest to
the line-of-sight, where the projected optical-radio position offsets are
minimized and jet emission is maximally boosted in the observed frame. While
only $\sim9\%$ of ICRF objects exhibit such large photometric variability,
these results suggest that taking source variability into account may provide a
means of optimally weighting the optical-radio celestial reference frame link.
