Trump blowback at town hall meetings continues to animate news around the country.

Just this week, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado got pummeled at a town hall meeting by constituents angry about his support of the Obamacare replacement health care bill.

Coffman is a centrist in a moderate district that gave Hillary Clinton an edge over Trump in the last election. He got a little reprieve — and some applause — at the same meeting when he said Trump press secretary Sean Spicer should go.

Here at home, our Democrat U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, has escaped such blistering Trump-driven fire from constituents.

But state Sen. Art Linares of Westbrook, one of the more outspoken Connecticut Republicans for Trump, has not.

Indeed, a shout down of Linares at a town hall meeting last month in Haddam didn't get traditional media attention, but it certainly got a lot of traction on social media.

A crude video of the confrontation came my way recently and I have to say I was surprised at how badly the lawmaker responded, at first ignoring a constituent who merely asked whether he supports existing gay rights in Connecticut, then scoffing at her question.

Apparently the senator responded later on Facebook, long after the meeting was over, saying he supports gay rights, but the senator in the video, which you can find on the Facebook page of one of two new activist groups in his district, Together We Rise, comes off as great, big, arrogant hater.

Do you support "maintaining all current rights and protections for LBGT citizens in Connecticut?" came the pretty straightforward question from a woman who said she is worried about what is going on in Washington and how federal gay rights might erode.

When Linares ignored the question and started talking about his Republican economic agenda in Hartford, the crowd shouted him down.

The senator already had refused to say whether he would support a pending bill to ban gay conversion therapy in Connecticut, saying the bill was essentially a waste of his time, a "bizarre misdirection." He said he hasn't even looked at it.

After trying to tame the agitated crowd, including at one point a woman shouting "silence is an answer," Linares went on to call the gay rights question hypothetical.

"I am not going to stand here and answer hypothetical questions to problems that don't exist," the senator said in a pique. "It's not going to happen."

Really? It makes you wonder just which civil rights for gays he wasn't willing to say he would protect.

In the end, it took his Republican colleague, Rep. Bob Siegrist, who was co-hosting the meeting, to bail out Linares.

"To answer your question, I have always been a strong supporter of the LBGT community," Siegrist said to a roomful of applause. "If you are straight or gay, I don't care."

"We are Americans, and we are people, and that's where I stand on that," he continued.

Someone else then asked again whether Linares could answer yes or no.

He made no move to take back the microphone. He obviously wasn't paying attention to how easy it was for Siegrist.

Together We Rise is one of two activist groups that have formed in Linares' district since Donald Trump was elected president. The other, The Valley Stands Up, is raising some of the same issues, promising to be nonpartisan and focused on promoting conversation and awareness, not advocacy for particular candidates.

I expect Sen. Linares will see more of these constituents if he decides to brave more town hall meetings.

If he does, he should try to swallow a small dose of humility beforehand and at least listen to what his constituents are worried about, in the time of Trump.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com