I do understand why he behaved this way. Look at the recent attempts to coerce various high-profile projects into adopting a particular code of conduct. These attempts invariably introduce identity politics and drama into a previously purely meritocratic community, and result in a huge amount of wasted time and lost productivity.

Regardless, I don't think he went about it the right way. It would have been more effective to simply reject the patch with a note stating that the variable name was appropriate in context (assuming it was so).