I think what appealed to me (although I agree with you, of course) is that the way he put it was that he wasn't trying to censor the film, but rather to persuade the theater owners not to show it.

Heh. Protesting a film doesn't mean you make it impossible for anyone else to see it or hear it. This is exactly like the idiot students who make so much noise, they drown out the voices of right-wing speakers who have been invited to speak at their college, under the guise of (their own) freedom of speech. Preventing another from voicing his opinion is NOT freedom of speech; never has been, never will be. This guy is obviously trying to censor the film, he's just putting a nice little uber-PC spin on it.