The Senate passed three perennial bills Thursday, comparatively early in the session, giving their sponsors hope that they will finally cross the finish line this time around.

Senators unanimously approved bills to strike from state laws outdated and offensive language referring to people with disabilities (S 137), removing statutes criminalizing certain sex acts and blasphemy (S 1034), and creating a program to improve interactions between police and autistic drivers (S 2558).

“I want to acknowledge that it’s taken 15 years to get to this point, and just say that this is an example of the importance of persistence,” said Sen. Pat Jehlen, who has sponsored the Senate version of the bill to remove offensive language regarding people with disabilities for over a decade.

She said the first version of the bill drafted 15 years ago removed 10 sections of state law that used the word “handicapped.”

Every year, researchers found more and more instances of offensive language, slurs and out-of-date terminology for people with disabilities to be stricken from state statute, causing delays. The bill passed approved on Thursday would change 362 instances of outdated language, mostly by inserting “people with disabilities.”

“This bill represents a significant step forward, not only in how we talk about disability, but in how we affirm the value and dignity of every person across this commonwealth,” said Sen. Robyn Kennedy, co-chair of the Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities. “These words have remained in our legal code for far too long, words that no longer reflect our values or our understanding of disability. [This bill] replaces those terms with modern, person-first language that centers respect, humanity and inclusion.”

Melissa Reilly, a longtime aide in Sen. Jamie Eldridge’s office and advocate for people with disabilities and Down syndrome like herself, came to watch the session. She left her job in the State House earlier this year when her family moved to Connecticut, but she had been a passionate advocate for this bill for a decade. Every senator who spoke about the bill thanked Reilly for her work.

“As chair of Rules [Committee], even after we put the bill out in 2016 and ’18, I would still hear from Melissa Reilly almost every day, saying, where’s the bill? And I would say, well explain that we did it. And she’d say, I don’t care, where’s the law. There’s a big difference between a bill and a law, and Melissa made it clear she was looking for a law, not a bill,” said Sen. Mark Montigny.

Senators also adopted a Sen. Cindy Creem amendment to change language in state laws from “hearing impaired” to “deaf and hard of hearing.” Creem said a constituent had brought the issue to her attention.

“The language in our statutes should reflect the rich culture and diversity of deaf and hard of hearing community, not falsely imply that the community is somehow damaged or less than perfect,” Creem said.

Senators took up another bill to update statutes by striking so-called archaic laws.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled anti-sodomy laws unconstitutional in 2003 and Massachusetts has legally recognized same-sex marriage since 2004, but sections of state law still feature discriminatory restrictions on sexual interactions between consenting adults.

Massachusetts still has laws on its books that could send a person to prison for sodomy or “unnatural acts,” as well as for using the “Holy Name of God” in a curse. The courts have deemed these laws basically irrelevant, but Senate Democrats said Thursday that their continued presence in state statute could be a threat to the LGBTQ+ community and other Bay Staters.

Massachusetts is the only state in New England that has not removed anti-sodomy laws from its books.

“We’re living in turbulent times,” said Sen. Julian Cyr. “A barrage of federal action in just the last seven months, the reversal of Roe v. Wade coupled with a surge of anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ legislation across the country underscores the imperative for vigilance in defense of rights and liberties… This legislation is not just cosmetic. It’s about reaffirming Massachusetts’ commitment to personal liberty and to equality in an era of escalating threats to the most sacred of our rights.”

The Sen. William Brownsberger bill would also remove the term “common nightwalker” from state laws, which he said has been used specifically to target trans women walking at night to “prosecute or grab off the streets.”

The Senate also adopted a Sen. Sal DiDomenico amendment to strike language in statute that related to “petit treason” — which shocked both DiDomenico and Sen. Bruce Tarr to discover was still in Massachusetts state law.

Petit treason is a crime of killing one’s “superior,” namely an enslaved person killing their enslaver, a wife killing her husband, or a clergyman killing their superior, DiDomenico said.

“There are two individuals that were convicted of petit treason in the commonwealth in 1775 — if you can believe that we saw that this law has been in existence since 1775 in our state — and it happened in Charlestown, where I represent today,” DiDomenico said. “There were two enslaved people who could no longer endure their enslaver’s severe cruelty. Each was convicted and sentenced to death. Mark was the first person, who was hanged publicly, while Phyllis, the second person, was burned to death. Petit treason is archaic and was primarily used for discriminatory purposes, and it should be stricken from the general laws.”

Tarr called it “offensive, inappropriate, and to say that it is outdated is an understatement.”

Lastly, the Senate took up a Sen. Jo Comerford bill to codify a blue envelope program in Massachusetts law to improve interactions between police and autistic drivers. Under it, participating drivers could choose to place copies of their license, registration and insurance cards inside a blue envelope, which acts as a visual cue for police and other public safety officials during stressful and potentially dangerous traffic stops.

The envelope would notify police that the driver is autistic and provide guidance for how to handle certain behaviors, such as stimming. Drivers can also share emergency contact information on the envelope.

The Massachusetts State Police began a voluntary program modeled after the legislation last year, even though the bill was not made law.

Comerford said she was grateful to the State Police for beginning the program, but it was still important to codify the program in statute.

“It is critical that we codify this into law so our state statute says this is a protection that will be lasting,” Comerford said.

Senators also adopted an amendment from Sen. Michael Moore to mandate training once every five years for police officers on safe interactions with autistic people.

This training would “make sure they actually get the training so they can recognize some of the characteristics of someone who may have a developmental disability, and being able to recognize those characteristics to work with them. We did a lot of that work in police reform, making sure that police interact appropriately, hopefully, with the general public. Every demographic should be treated fairly and appropriately,” Moore said.

The bills are now in the House’s hands. The House passed a version of the disability language bill last session. The archaic languages and blue envelope bills died in House Ways and Means.